C  LIBRARY     | 

UNIVERSITY  OF 
CALIFORNIA 

SAN  DIEGO       , 


5~& 

,<3 


WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FAKMING: 


A  SERIES  OF 


BRIEF  AND  PLAIN  EXPOSITIONS 


PRACTICAL  AGRICULTURE 

AS  AN   ART  BASED   UPON  SCIENCE  : 
BY  HORACE  GREELEY. 


"  I  know 

That  where  the  spade  Is  deepest  driven, 
The  best  fruits  grow. " 

JOHN  G.  WHTTTIKR. 


NEW-YORK  : 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  TRIBUNE  ASSOCIATION. 
1871. 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  In  the  year  1870,  by 

HORACE    GREELEY, 
at  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


TO 

THE  MAN  OF  OUR  AGE, 

WHO    SHALL   HAKE    THE    FIRST    PLOW   PROPELLED    BY 

STEAM, 
OR     OTHER     MECHANICAL     POWER,     WHEREBY     NOT     LESS     THAX 

TEN  ACRES   PER  DAY 

SHALL  BE  THOROUGHLY  PULVERIZED  TO  A 

DEPTH  OF  TWO  FEET, 

AT     A    COST    OF     NOT     MORE    THAN     TWO     DOLLARS    PER     ACRE, 
THIS    WORK   IS    ADMIRINGLY    DEDICATED   BY 


THE  AUTHOR. 


CONTENTS  BY  CHAPTERS. 


I.  Will  Farming  Pay  ? 13 

II.  Good  and  Bad  Husbandry 18 

HI.  Where  to  Farm 23 

IV.  Preparing  to  Farm 29 

V.  Buying  a  Farm 34 

VL  Laying  off  a  Farm ;   Pasturing 39 

VII.  Trees ;  Woodlands ;  Forests 44 

VIII.  Growing  Timber ;  Tree-Planting 49 

IX.  Planting  and  Growing  Trees 56 

X.  Draining ;  My  Own 62 

XI.  Draining  Generally 69 

XII.  Irrigation ;  Means  and  Ends 74 

XIII.  Possibilities  of  Irrigation 79 

XIV.  Plowing,  Deep  or  Shallow 85 

XV.  Plowing,  Good  and  Bad 91 

XVI.  Thorough  Tillage 96 

XVIL  Commercial  Fertilizers — Gypsum 1 02 

XVin.  Alkalis— Salt,  Ashes,  Lime 107 

XIX.  Sdtls  and  Fertilizers 112 

XX.  Bones,  Phosphates,  Guano .' 118 

XXI.  Muck— How  to  Utilize  It 124 

XXII.  Insects;  Birds 129 

XXIII.  About  Tree-Planting 134 

XXIV.  Fruit-Trees— The  Apple 139 

XXV.  More  about  Apple-Trees 145 

XXVI.  Hay  and  Hay-Making 150 

XXVII.  Peaches,  Pears,  Cherries,  Grapes 156 

XXVIII.  Grain-Growing—East  and  West 162 

XXIX.  Esculent  Roots— Potatoes 170 

XXX.  Boots— Turnips,  Beets,  Carrots 178 

5 


VI  CONTENTS. 

XXXI.  The  Farmers'  Calling 183 

XXXII.  A  Lesson  of  To-day 189 

XXXIII.  Intellect  in  Agriculture 195 

XXXIV.  Sheep  and  Wool-Growing 200 

XXXV.  Accounts  in  Farming 207 

XXXVI.  Stone  on  a  Farm 212 

XXXVII.  Fences  and  Fencing 219 

XXXVIII.  Agricultural  Exhibitions 225 

XXXIX.  Science  in  Agriculture 231 

XL.  Farm  Implements 237 

XLL  Steam  in  Agriculture 241 

XLII.  Co-operation  in  Farming 248 

XLIII.  Farmers'  Clubs 254 

XLIV.  Western  Irrigation 260 

XLV.  Sewage 266 

XL VI.  More  of  Irrigation 274 

XL VII.  Undeveloped  Sources  of  Power 280 

XLVIII.  Rural  Depopulation 286 

XLIX.  Large  and  Small  Farms 292 

L.  Exchange  and  Distribution 297 

LI.  Winter  Work 303 

L 1 1.  Summing  up 308 


PREFACE. 


MEN  have  written  wisely  and  usefully,  in  illustration  and 
aid  of  Agriculture,  from  the  platform  of  pure  science.  Ac- 
quainted with  the  laws  of  vegetable  growth  and  life,  they 
so  expounded  and  elucidated  those  laws  that  farmers  appre- 
hended and  profitably  obeyed  them.  Others  have  written, 
to  equally  good  purpose,  who  knew  little  of  science,  but  were 
adepts  in  practical  agriculture,  according  to  the  maxims  and 
usages  of  those  who  have  successfully  followed  and  dignified 
the  farmer's  calling.  I  rank  with  neither  of  these  honored 
classes.  My  practical  knowledge  of  agriculture  is  meager, 
and  mainly  acquired  in  a  childhood  long  bygone ;  while,  of 
science,  I  have  but  a  smattering,  if  even  that.  They  are 
right,  therefore,  who  urge  that  my  qualifications  for  writing 
on  agriculture  are  slender  indeed. 

I  only  lay  claim  to  an  invincible  willingness  to  be  made 
wiser  to-day  than  I  was  yesterday,  and  a  lively  faith  in  the 
possibility — nay,  the  feasibility,  the  urgent  necessity,  the 
imminence — of  very  great  improvements  in  our  ordinary  deal- 
ings with  the  soil.  I  know  that  a  majority  of  those  who 

would  live  by  its  tillage  feed  it  too  sparingly  and  stir  it  too 

7 


VI 11  PREFACE. 

slightly  and  grudgingly.  I  know  that  we  do  too  little  for  it, 
and  expect  it,  thereupon,  to  do  too  much  for  us.  I  know 
that,  in  other  pursuits,  it  is  only  work  thoroughly  well  done 
that  is  liberally  compensated;  and  I  see  no  reason  why  farm- 
ing should  prove  an  exception  to  this  stern  but  salutary  law. 
I  may  be,  indeed,  deficient  in  knowledge  of  what  constitutes 
good  farming,  but  not  in  faith  that  the  very  best  farming  is 
that  which  is  morally  sure  of  the  largest  and  most  certain 
reward. 

I  hope  to  be  generally  accorded  the  merit  of  having  set 
forth  the  little  I  pretend  to  know  in  language  that  few  can 
fail  to  understand.  I  have  avoided,  so  far  as  I  could,  the  use 
of  terms  and  distinctions  unfamiliar  to  the  general  ear.  The 
little  I  know  of  oxygen,  hydrogen,  nitrogen,  &c.,  I  have  kept 
to  myself ;  since  whatever  I  might  say  of  them  would  be  use- 
less to  those  already  acquainted  with  the  elementary  truths 
of  Chemistry,  and  only  perplexing  to  others.  If  there  is  a 
paragraph  in  the  following  pages  which  will  not  be  readily 
and  fully  understood  by  an  average  school-boy  of  fifteen 
years,  then  I  have  failed  to  make  that  paragraph  as  simple 
and  lucid  as  I  intended. 

Many  farmers  are  dissuaded  from  following  the  sugges- 
tions of  writers  on  agriculture  by  the  consideration  of  ex- 
pense. They  urge  that,  though  men  of  large  wealth  may 
(perhaps)  profitably  do  what  is  recommended,  their  means 
are  utterly  inadequate :  they  might  as  well  be  urged  to  work 


PREFACE.  IX 

their  oxen  in  a  silver  yoke  with  gold  bows.  I  have  aimed  to 
commend  mainly,  if  not  uniformly,  such  improvements  only 
on  our  grandfathers'  husbandry  as  a  fanner  worth  $1,000,  or 
over,  may  adopt — not  all  at  once,  but  gradually,  and  from 
year  to  year.  I  hope  I  shall  thus  convince  some  farmers 
that  draining,  irrigation,  deep  plowing,  heavy  fertilizing, 
&c.,  are  not  beyond  their  power,  as  so  many  have  too 
readily  presumed  and  pronounced  them. 

That  I  should  say  very  little,  and  that  little  vaguely,  of 
the  breeding  and  raising  of  animals,  the  proper  time  to  sow 
or  plant,  &c.,  &c.,  can  need  no  explanation.  By  far  the 
larger  number  of  those  whose  days  have  mainly  been  given 
to  farming,  know  more  than  I  do  of  these  details,  and  are 
better  authority  than  I  am  with  regard  to  them.  On  the 
other  hand,  I  have  traveled  extensively,  and  not  heedlessly, 
and  have  seen  and  pondered  certain  broader  features  of  the 
earth's  improvement  and  tillage  which  many  stay-at-home 
cultivators  have  had  little  or  no  opportunity  to  study  or 
even  observe.  By  restricting  the  topics  with  which  I  deal, 
the  probability  of  treating  some  of  them  to  the  average 
farmer's  profit  is  increased. 

And,  whatever  may  be  his  judgment  on  this  slight  work, 
I  know  that,  if  I  could  have  perused  one  of  like  tenor  half  a 
century  ago,  when  I  was  a  patient  worker  and  an  eager  reader 
in  my  father's  humble  home,  my  subsequent  career  would 
have  been  less  anxious  and  my  labors  less  exhausting  than 


X  PREFACE. 

they  have  been.  Could  I  then  have  caught  but  a  glimpse  of 
the  beneficent  possibilities  of  a  farmer's  life — could  I  have 
realized  that  he  is  habitually  (even  though  blindly)  dealing 
with  problems  which  require  and  reward  the  amplest  knowl- 
edge of  Nature's  laws,  the  fullest  command  of  science,  the 
noblest  efforts  of  the  human  intellect,  I  should  have  since 
pursued  the  peaceful,  unobtrusive  round  of  an  enthusiastic 
and  devoted,  even  though  not  an  eminent  or  fortunate,  tiller 
of  the  soil.  Even  the  little  that  is  unfolded  in  the  ensuing 
pages  would  have  sufficed  to  give  me  a  far  larger,  truer, 
nobler  conception  of  what  the  farmer  of  moderate  means 
might  and  should  be,  than  I  then  attained.  I  needed  to 
realize  that  observation  and  reflection,  study  and  mental 
acquisition,  are  as  essential  and  as  serviceable  in  his  pursuit 
as  in  others,  and  that  no  man  can  have  acquired  so  much 
general  knowledge  that  a  farmer's  exigencies  will  not  afford 
scope  and  use  for  it  all.  I  abandoned  the  farm,  because  I 
fancied  that  I  had  already  perceived,  if  I  had  not  as  yet 
clearly  comprehended,  all  there  was  in  the  fanner's  calling; 
whereas,  I  had  not  really  learned  much  more  of  it  than  a 
good  plow-horse  ought  to  understand.  And,  though  great 
progress  has  been  made  since  then,  there  are  still  thousands 
of 'boys,  in  this  enlightened  age  and  conceited  generation, 
who  have  scarcely  a  more  adequate  and  just  conception  of 
agriculture  than  I  then  had.  If  I  could  hope  to  reach  even 
one  in  every  hundred  of  this  class,  and  induce  him  to  pon- 


PREFACE.  XI 

dcr,  impartially,  the  contents  of  this  slight  volume,  I  know 
that  I  shall  not  have  written  it  in  vain. 

We  need  to  mingle  more  thought  with  our  work.  Some 
think  till  their  heads  ache  intensely ;  others  work  till  their 
backs  are  crooked  to  the  semblance  of  half  #n  iron  hoop ; 
but  the  workers  and  the  thinkers  are  apt  to  be  distinct 
classes ;  whereas,  they  should  be  the  same.  Admit  that  it 
has  always  been  thus,  it  by  no  means  follows  that  it  always 
should  or  shall  be.  In  an  age  when  every  laborer's  son  may 
be  fairly  educated  if  he  will,  there  should  be  more  fruit 
gathered  from  the  tree  of  knowledge  to  justify  the  magnifi- 
cent promise  of  its  foliage  and  its  bloom.  I  rejoice  in  the 
belief  that  the  graduates  of  our  common  schools  are  better 
ditch-diggers,  when  they  can  no  otherwise  employ  them- 
selves to  better  advantage,  than  though  they  knew  not  how 
to  read  ;  but  that  is  not  enough.  If  the  untaught  peasantry 
of  Eussia  or  Hungary  grow  more  wheat  per  acre  than  the 
comparatively  educated  farmers  of  the  United  States,  our 
education  is  found  wanting.  That  is  a  vicious  and  defective 
if  not  radically  false  mental  training  which  leaves  its  subject 
no  better  qualified  for  any  useful  calling  than  though  he  were 
unlettered.  But  I  forbear  to  pursue  this  ever-fruitful  theme. 

I  look  back,  on  this  day  completing  my  sixtieth  year,  over 
a  life,  which  must  now  be  near  its  close,  of  constant  effort  to 
achieve  ends  whereof  many  seem  in  the  long  retrospect  to 
have  been  transitory  and  unimportant,  however  they  may 


XH  PREFACE. 

haye  loomed  upon  my  vision  when  in  their  immediate  pres- 
ence. One  achievement  only  of  our  age  and  country — the 
banishment  of  human  chattelhood  from  our  soil — seems  now 
to  have  been  worth  all  the  requisite  efforts,  the  agony  and 
bloody  8weat,^hrough  which  it  was  accomplished.  But  an- 
other reform,  not  so  palpably  demanded  by  justice  and  hu- 
manity, yet  equally  conducive  to  the  well-being  of  our  race, 
presses  hard  on  its  heels,  and  insists  that  we  shall  accord  it 
instant  and  earnest  consideration.  It  is  the  elevation  of  Labor 
from  the  plane  of  drudgery  and  servility  to  one  of  self-respect, 
self-guidance,  and  genuine  independence,  so  as  to  render  the 
human  worker  no  mere  cog  in  a  vast,  revolving  wheel,  whose 
motion  he  can  neither  modify  nor  arrest,  but  a  partner  in  the 
enterprise  which  his  toil  is  freely  contributed  to  promote,  a 
sharer  in  the  outlay,  the  risk,  the  loss  and  gain,  which  it 
involves.  This  end  can  be  attained  through  the  training  of 
the  generation  who  are  to  succeed  us  to  observe  and  reflect, 
to  live  for  other  and  higher  ends  than  those  of  present  sensual 
gratification,  and  to  feel  that  no  achievement  is  beyond  the 
reach  of  their  wisely  combined  and  ably  self-directed  efforts. 
To  that  part  of  the  generation  of  farmers  just  coming  upon  the 
stage  of  responsible  action,  who  have  intelligently  resolved 
that  the  future  of  American  agriculture  shall  evince  decided 
and  continuous  improvement  on  its  past,  this  little  book  is 
respectfully  commended.  H.  G. 

New  York,  fet>.  8, 1871. 


WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FAMING. 


i. 

WILL   FARMINQ   PAY? 

I  COMMENCE  my  essays  with  this  question,  because, 
when  I  urge  the  superior  advantages  of  a  rural  life,  I 
am  often  met  by  the  objection  that  Farming  doesn't 
pay.  That,  if  true,  is  a  serious  matter.  Let  us  con- 
sider : 

I  do  not  understand  it  to  be  urged  that  the  farmer 
who  owns  a  large,  fertile  estate,  well-fenced,  well- 
stocked,  with  good  store  of  effective  implements, 
cannot  live  and  thrive  by  farming.  "What  is  meant 
is,  that  he  who  has  little  but  two  brown  hands  to  de- 
pend upon  cannot  make  money,  or  can  make  very 
little,  by  farming. 

I  think  those  who  urge  this  point  have  a  very  in- 
adequate conception  of  the  difficulty  encountered  by 
every  poor  young  man  in  securing  a  good  start  in 
life,  no  matter  in  what  pursuit.  I  came  to  New- York 
when  not  quite  of  age,  with  a  good  constitution,  a 
fair  common-school  education,  good  health,  good  hab- 
its, and  a  pretty  fair  trade — (that  of  printer.)  I  think 


14  WHAT   I    KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

my  outfit  for  a  campaign  against  adverse  fortune  was 
decidedly  better  than  the  average ;  yet  ten  long  years 
elapsed  before  it  was  settled  that  I  could  remain  here 
and  make  any  decided  headway.  Meantime,  I  drank 
no  liquors,  used  no  tobacco,  attended  no  balls  or  other 
expensive  entertainments,  worked  hard  and  long 
whenever  I  could  find  work  to  do,  lost  less  than  a 
month  altogether  by  sickness,  and  did  very  little  in 
the  way  of  helping  others.  I  judge  that  quite  as 
many  did  worse  than  I  as  did  better ;  and  that,  of 
the  young  lawyers  and  doctors  who  try  to  establish 
themselves  here  in  their  professions,  quite  as  many 
earn  less  as  earn  more  than  their  bare  board  during 
the'  first  ten  years  of  their  struggle. 

John  Jacob  Astor,  near  the  close  of  a  long,  dili- 
gent, prosperous  career,  wherein  he  amassed  a  large 
fortune,  is  said  to  have  remarked  that,  if  he  were  to 
begin  life  again,  and  had  to  choose  between  making 
his  first  thousand  dollars  with  nothing  to  start  on,  or 
with  that  thousand  making  all  that  he  had  actually 
accumulated,  he  would  deem  the  latter  the  easier 
task.  Depend  upon  it,  young  men,  it  is  and  must  be 
hard  work  to  earn  honestly  your  first  thousand  dol- 
lars. The  burglar,  the  forger,  the  blackleg  (whether 
he  play  with  cards,  with  dice,  or  with  stocks),  may 
seem  to  have  a  quick  and  easy  way  of  making  a 
thousand  dollars;  but  whoever  makes  that  sum  hon- 
estly, with  nothing  but  his  own  capacities  and  ener- 
gies as  capital,  does  a  very  good  five-years'  work,  and 
may  deem  himself  fortunate  if  he  finishes  it  so  soon. 


WILL   FARMING  PAY?  15 

I  have  known  men  do  better,  even  at  farming.  I 
recollect  one  who,  with  "no  capital  but  a  good  wife 
and  four  or  live  hundred  dollars,  bought  (near  Boston) 
a  farm  of  two  hundred  mainly  rough  acres,  for  $2,500, 
and  paid  for  it  out  of  its  products  within  the  next  five 
years,  during  which  he  had  nearly  doubled  its  value. 
I  lost  sight  of  him  then ;  but  I  have  not  a  doubt  that, 
if  he  lived  fifteen  years  longer  and  had  no  very  bad 
luck,  he  was  worth,  as  the  net  result  of  twenty  years' 
effort,  at  least  $100,000.  But  this  man  would  rise  at 
four  o'clock  of  a  winter  morning,  harness  his  span  of 
horses  and  hitch  them  to  his  large  market-wagon 
(loaded  over  night),  drive  ten  miles  into  Boston,  un- 
load and  load  back  again,  be  home  at  fair  breakfast- 
time,  and,  hastily  swallowing  his  meal,  be  fresh  as  a 
daisy  for  his  day's  work,  in  which  he  would  lead  his 
hired  men,  keeping  them  clear  of  the  least  danger  of 
falling  asleep.  Such  men  are  rare,  but  they  still  ex- 
ist, proving  scarcely  anything  impossible  to  an  in- 
domitable will.  I  would  not  advise  any  to  work  so 
unmercifully ;  I  seek  only  to  enforce  the  truth  that 
great  achievements  are  within  the  reach  of  whoever 
will  pay  their  price. 

An  energetic  farmer  bought,  some  twenty-five  years 
ago,  a  large  grazing  farm  in  Northern  Vermont,  con- 
sisting of  some  150  acres,  and  costing  him  about 
$3,000.  He  had  a  small  stock  of  cattle,  which  was 
all  his  land  would  carry ;  but  he  resolved  to  increase 
that  stock  by  at  least  ten  per  cent,  per  annum,  and 
to  so  improve  his  land  by  cultivation,  fertilizing, 


16  WHAT  I  KNOW  OF   FARMING. 

clover,  &c.,  that  it  would  amply  carry  that  increase. 
Fifteen  years  later,  he  sold*  out  farm  and  stock  for 
$45,000,  and  migrated  to  the  West.  I  did  not  under- 
stand that  he  was  a  specially  hard  worker,  but  only 
a  good  manager,  who  kept  his  eyes  wide  open,  let 
nothing  go  to  waste,  and  steadily  devoted  his  ener- 
gies and  means  to  the  improvement  of  his  stock  and 
his  farm. 

Walking  one  day  over  the  farm  of  the  late  Prof. 
Mapes,  he  showed  me  a  field  of  rather  less  than  ten 
acres,  and  said,  "  I  bought  that  field  for  $2,400,  a 
year  ago  last  September.  There  was  then  a  light 
crop  of  corn  on  it,  which  the  seller  reserved  and  took 
away.  I  underdrained  the  field  that  Fall,  plowed 
and  sub-soiled  it,  fertilized  it  liberally,  and  planted  it 
with  cabbage ;  and,  when  these  matured,  I  sold  them 
for  enough  to  pay  for  land,  labor,  and  fertilizers,  alto- 
gether." The  field  was  now  worth  far  more  than 
when  he  bought  it,  and  he  had  cleared  it  within  fif- 
teen months  from  the  date  of  its  purchase.  I  con- 
sider that  a  good  operation.  Another  year,  the  crop 
might  have  been  poor,  or  might  have  sold  much  low- 
er, so  as  hardly  to  pay  for  the  labor ;  but  there  are 
risks  in  other  pursuits  as  well  as  in  farming. 

A  fruit-fanner,  on  the  Hudson  above  Newbunr, 

Cf 

showed  me,  three  years  since,  a  field  of  eight  or  ten 
acres  which  he  had  nicely  set  with  Grapes,  in  rows 
ten  feet  apart,  with  beds  of  Strawberries  between  the 
rows,  from  which  he  assured  me  that  his  sales  per 
acre  exceeded  $YOO  per  annum.  I  presume  his  out- 


WILL   FARMING   PAY  ?  17 

lay  for  labor,  including  picking,  was  less  than  $300 
per  annum ;  but  it  had  cost  something  to  make  this 
field  what  it  then  was.  Say  that  he  had  spent  $1,000 
per  acre  in  under-draining,  enriching  and  tilling  this 
field,  to  bring  it  to  this  condition,  including  the  cost 
of  his  plants,  and  still  there  must  have  been  a  clear 
profit  here  of  at  least  $300  per  acre. 

I  might  multiply  illustrations ;  but  let  the  forego- 
ing suffice.  I  readily  admit  that  shiftless  farming 
doesn't  pay — that  poor  crops  don't  pay — that  it  is 
hard  work  to  make  money  by  farming  without  some 
capital — that  frost,  or  hail,  or  drouth,  or  floods,  or 
insects,  may  blast  the  farmer's  hopes,  after  he  has 
done  his  best  to  deserve  and  achieve  success ;  but  I 
insist  that,  as  a  general  proposition,  GOOD  Farming 
DOES  pay — that  few  pursuits  afford  as  good  a  pros- 
pect, as  full  an  assurance,  of  reward  for  intelligent, 
energetic,  persistent  effort,  as  this  does. 

I  am  not  arguing  that  every  man  should  be  a 
farmer.  Other  vocations  are  useful  and  necessary, 
and  many  pursue  them  with  advantage  to  them- 
selves and  to  others.  But  those  pursuits  are  apt  to 
be  modified  by  time,  and  some  of  them  may  yet  be 
entirely  dispensed  with,  which  Farming  never  can 
be.  It  is  the  first  and  most  essential  of  human  pur- 
suits ;  it  is  every  one's  interest  that  this  calling 
should  be  honored  and  prosperous.  If  not  adequately 
recompensed,  I  judge  that  is  because  it  is  not  wisely 
and  energetically  followed.  My  aim  is  to  show 
how  it  may  be  pursued  with  satisfaction  and  profit. 


n. 


GOOD   AND   BAD   HUSBANDRY. 

NECESSITY  is  the  master  of  us  all.  A  farmer  may 
be  as  strenuous  for  deep  plowing  as  I  am — may  firmly 
believe  that  the  soil  should  be  thoroughly  broken  up 
and  pulverized  to  a  depth  of  fifteen  to  thirty  inches, 
according  to  the  crop ;  but,  if  all  the  team  he  can 
muster  is  a  yoke  of  thin,  light  steers,  or  a  span  of 
old,  spavined  horses,  which  have  not  even  a  speaking 
acquaintance  with  grain,  what  shall  he  do  ?  So  he 
may  heartily  wish  he  had  a  thousand  loads  of  barn- 
yard manure,  and  know  how  to  make  a  good  use  of 
every  ounce  of  it ;  but,  if  he  has  it  not,  and  is  not 
able  to  buy  it,  he  can't  always  afford  to  forbear  sow- 
ing and  planting,  and  so,  because  he  cannot  secure 
great  crops,  do  without  any  crops  at  all.  If  he  does 
the  best  he  can,  what  better  cam,  he  do  ? 

Again :  Many  farmers  have  fields  that  must  await 
the  pleasure  of  Nature  to  fit  them  for  thorough  culti- 
vation. Here  is  a  field — sometimes  a  whole  farm — 
which,  if  partially  divested  of  the  primitive  forest,  is 
still  thickly  dotted  with  obstinate  stumps  and  filled 
with  green,  tenacious  roots,  which  could  only  be  re- 

(18) 


GOOD    AND   BAD    HUSBANDRY.  19 

moved  at  a  heavy,  perhaps  ruinous,  cost.  A  rich 
man  might  order  them  all  dug  out  in  a  month,  and 
see  his  order  fully  obeyed ;  but,  except  to  clear  a  spot 
for  a  garden  or  under  very  peculiar  circumstances,  it 
would  not  pay ;  and  a  poor  man  cannot  afford  to  in- 
cur a  hea"\y  expense  merely  for  appearance's  sake,  or 
to  make  a  theatrical  display  of  energy.  In  the  great 
majority  of  cases,  he  who  farms  for  a  living  can't  af- 
ford to  pull  green  stumps,  but  must  put  his  newly- 
cleared  land  into  grass  at  the  earliest  day,  mow  the 
smoother,  pasture  the  rougher  portions  of  it,  and  wait 
for  rain  and  drouth,  heat  and  frost,  to  rot  his  stumps 
until  they  can  easily  be  pulled  or  burned  out  as  they 
stand. 

So  with  regard  to  a  process  I  detest,  known  as 
Pasturing.  I  do  firmly  believe  that  the  time  is  at 
hand  when  nearly  all  the  food  of  cattle  will,  in  our 
Eastern  and  Middle  States,  be  cut  and  fed  to  them — 
that  we  can't  afford  much  longer,  even  if  we  can  at 
present,  to  let  them  roam  at  will  over  hill  and  dale, 
through  meadow  and  forest,  biting  off  the  better 
plants  and  letting  the  worse  go  to  seed ;  often  poach- 
ing up  the  soft,  wet  soil,  especially  in  Spring,  so  that 
their  hoofs  destroy  as  much  as  they  eat ;  nipping  and 
often  killing  in  their  infancy  the  finest  trees,  such  as 
the  Sugar  Maple,  and  leaving  only  such  as  Hemlock, 
Ked  Oak,  Beech,  &c.,  to  attain  maturity.  Our  race 
generally  emerged  from  savageism  and  squalor  into 
industry,  comfort  and  thrift,  through  the  Pastoral 
condition — the  herding,  taming,  rearing  and  training 


20  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

of  animals  being  that  department  of  husbandry  to 
which  barbarians  are  most  easily  attracted :  hence, 
we  cling  to  Pasturing  long  after  the  reason  for  it  has 
vanished.  The  radical,  incurable  vice  of  Pasturing — 
that  of  devouring  the  better  plants  and  leaving  the 
worse  to  ripen  and  diffuse  seed — can  never  be  wholly 
obviated ;  and  I  deem  it  safe  to  estimate  that  almost 
any  farm  will  carry  twice  as  much  stock  if  their  food 
be  mainly  cut  and  fed  to  them  as  it  will  if  they  are 
required  to  pick  it  up  where  and  as  it  grows  or  grew. 
I  am  sure  that  the  general  adoption  of  Soiling  instead 
of  Pasturing  will  add  immensely  to  the  annual  pro- 
duct, to  the  wealth,  and  to  the  population,  of  our 
older  States.  And  yet,  I  know  right  well  that  many 
farms  are  now  so  rough  and  otherwise  so  unsuited  to 
Soiling  as  to  preclude  its  adoption  thereon  for  many 
years  to  come. 

Let  me  indicate  what  I  mean  by  Good  Farming, 
through  an  illustration  drawn  from  the  Great  "West : 

All  over  the  settled  portions  of  the  Yalley  of  the 
Upper  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri,  there  are  large 
and  small  herds  of  cattle  that  are  provided  with  little 
or  no  shelter.  The  lea  of  a  fence  or  stack,  the  par- 
tial protection  of  a  young  and  leafless  wood,  they 
may  chance  to  enjoy ;  but  that  it  is  a  ruinous  waste 
to  leave  them  a  prey  to  biting  frosts  and  piercing 
north-westers,  their  owners  seem  not  to  comprehend. 
Many  farmers  far  above  want  will  this  Winter  feed 
out  fields  of  Corn  and  stacks  of  Hay  to  herds  of  cat- 
tle that  will  not  be  one  pound  heavier  on  the  1st  of 


GOOD   AND   BAD   HUSBANDRY.  21 

next  May  than  they  were  on  the  1st  of  last  December 
— who  will  have  required  that  fodder  merely  to  pre- 
serve their  vitality  and  escape  freezing  to  death.  It 
has  mainly  been  employed  as  fuel  rather  than  as 
nourishment,  and  has  served,  not  to  put  on  flesh,  but 
to  keep  out  frost. 

Now  I  am  familiar  with  the  excuses  for  this  waste  ; 
but  they  do  not  satisfy  me.  The  poorest  pioneer 
might  have  built  for  his  one  cow  a  rude  shelter  of 
stakes,  and  poles,  and  straw  or  prairie-grass,  if  he 
had  realized  its  importance,  simply  in  the  light  of 
economy.  He  who  has  many  cattle  is  rarely  without 
both  straw  and  timber,  and  might  shelter  his  stock 
abundantly  if  he  only  would.  Nay,  he  could  not 
have  neglected  or  omitted  it  if  he  had  clearly  under- 
stood that  his  beasts  must  somehow  be  supplied  with 
heat,  and  that  he  can  far  cheaper  warm  them  from 
without  than  from  within. 

The  broad,  general,  unquestionable  truths,  on  which 
I  insist  in  behalf  of  Good  Farming  are  these  ;  and  I 
do  not  admit  that  they  are  subject  to  exception  : 

I.  It  is  very  rarely  impracticable  to  grow  good 
crops,  if  you  are  willing  to  work  for  them.  If  your 
land  is  too  poor  to  grow  Wheat  or  Corn,  and  you  are 
not  yet  able  to  enrich  it,  sow  Rye  or  Buckwheat ;  if 
you  cannot  coax  it  to  grow  a  good  crop  of  anything, 
let  it  alone ;  and,  if  you  cannot  run  away  from  it, 
work  out  by  the  day  or  month  for  your  more  fortu- 
nate neighbors.  The  time  and  means  squandered  in 
trying  to  grow  crops  where  only  half  or  quarter 


22  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

crops  can  be  made,  constitute  the  heaviest  item  on 
the  wrong  side  of  our  farmers'  balance-sheets ;  taxing 
them  more  than  their  National,  State,  and  local  gov- 
ernments together  do. 

II.  Good  crops  rarely  fail  to  yield  a  profit  to  the 
grower.      I  know  there  are  exceptions,  but  they  are 
very  few.     Keep  your  eye  on  the  farmer  who  almost 
uniformly    has    great    Grass,    good   Wheat,   heavy 
Corn,  &c.,  and,  unless  he  drinks,  or  has  some  other 
bad  habit,  you  will  find  him  growing  rich.     I  am 
confident  that  white  blackbirds  are  nearly  as  abund- 
ant as  farmers  who  have  become  poor  while  usually 
growing  good  crops. 

III.  The  fairest  single  test  of  good  farming  is  the 
increasing  productiveness  of  the  soil.      That   farm 
which  averaged  twenty  bushels  of  grain  to  the  acre 
twenty  years  ago,  twenty-five  bushels  ten  years  ago, 
and  will  measure  up  thirty  bushels  to  the  acre  from 
this  year's  crop,  has  been  and  is  in  good  hands.     I 
know  no  other  touchstone  of  Farming  so  unerring  as 
that  of  the  increase  or  decrease  from  year  to  year 
of  its  aggregate  product.     If  you  would  convince  me 
that  X.  is  a  good  farmer,  do  not  tell  me  of  some  great 
crop  he  has  just  grown,  but  show  me  that  his  crop 
has  regularly  increased  from  year  to  year,  and  I  am 
satisfied. 

— I  shall  have  more  to  say  on  these  points  as  I  pro- 
ceed. It  suffices  for  the  present  if  I  have  clearly  in- 
dicated what  I  mean  by  Good  and  what  by  Bud 
Farming. 


m. 

WHEKE   TO   FARM. 

my  father  was  over  sixty  years  old,  and  had 
lived  some  twenty  years  in  Erie  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, he  said  to  me :  "  I  have  several  times  re- 
moved, and  always  toward  the  West ;  I  shall  never 
remove  again  ;  but,  were  I  to  do  so,  it  would  be  to- 
ward the  East.  Experience  has  taught  me  that  the 
advantages  of  every  section  are  counterbalanced  by 
disadvantages,  and  that,  where  any  crop  is  easily 
produced,  there  it  sells  low,  and  sometimes  cannot  be 
sold  at  all.  I  shall  live  and  die  right  here ;  but,  were 
I  to  remove  again,  it  would  not  be  toward  the  West/' 
This  is  but  one  side  of  a  truth,  and  I  give  it  for 
whatever  it  may  be  worth.  Had  my  father  plunged 
into  the  primitive  forest  in  his  twenty-fifth  rather 
than  his  forty-fifth  year,  he  would  doubtless  have  be- 
come more  reconciled  to  pioneer  life  than  he  ever  did. 
I  would  advise  no  one  over  forty  years  of  age  to 
undertake,  with  scanty  means,  to  dig  a  farm  out  of 
the  dense  forest,  where  great  trees  must  be  cut  down 
and  cut  up,  rolled  into  log-heaps,  and  burned  to  ashes 
where  they  grew.  Where  half  the  timber  can  be 


24  WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FARMING. 

sold  for  enough  to  pay  the  cost  of  cutting,  the  case  is 
different  ;  but  I  know  right  well  that  digging  a  farm 
out  of  the  high  woods  is,  to  any  but  a  man  of  wealth, 
a  slow,  hard  task.  Making  one  out  of  naked  prairie, 
five  to  ten  miles  from  timber,  is  less  difficult,  but  not 
much.  He  who  can  locate  where  he  has  good  timber 
on  one  side  and  rich  prairie  on  the  other  is  fortunate, 
and  may  hope,  if  his  health  be  spared,  to  surround 
himself  with  every  n.eeded  comfort  within  ten  years. 
Still,  the  pioneer's  life  is  a  ragged  one,  especially  for 
women  and  children ;  and  I  should  advise  any  man 
who  is  worth  $2,000  and  has  a  family,  to  buy  out  an 
"  improvement "  (which,  in  most  cases,  badly  needs 
improving)  on  the  outskirt  of  civilization,  rather  than 
plunge  into  the  pathless  forest  or  push  out  upon  the 
unbroken  prairie.  I  rejoice  that  our  Public  Lands 
are  free  to  actual  settlers ;  I  believe  that  many  are 
thereby  enabled  to  make  for  themselves  homes  who 
otherwise  would  have  nothing  to  leave  their  children  ; 
yet  I  much  prefer  a  home  within  the  boundaries  of 
civilization  to  one  clearly  beyond  them.  There  is  a 
class  of  drinking,  hunting,  frolicking,  rarely  working, 
frontiersmen,  who  seem  to  have  been  created  on  pur- 
pose to  erect  log  cabins  and  break  paths  in  advance 
of  a  different  class  of  settlers,  who  regularly  come  in 
to  buy  them  out  and  start  them  along  after  a  few 
years.  I  should  here  prefer  to  follow  rather  than  lead. 
If  Co-operation  shall  ever  be  successfully  applied  to 
the  improvement  of  wild  lands,  I  trust  it  may  be 
otherwise. 


WHEBE   TO   FAEM.  25 

He  who  has  a  farm  already,  and  is  content  with  it, 
has  no  reason  to  ask,  "  Whither  shall  I  go  ?"  and  he 
may  rest  assured  that  thoroughly  good  farming  will 
pay  as  well  in  New  England  as  in  Kansas  or  in  Min- 
nesota. I  advise  no  man  who  has  a  good  farm  any- 
where, and  is  able  to  keep  it,  to  sell  and  migrate.  I 
know  men  who  make  money  by  growing  food  within 
twenty  miles  of  this  city  quite  as  fast  as  they  could 
in  the  West.  If  you  have  money  to  buy  and  work 
it,  and  know  how  to  make  the  most  of  it,  I  believe 
you  may  find  land  really  as  cheap,  all  things  consid- 
ered, in  Vermont  as  in  Wisconsin  or  Arkansas. 

And  yet  I  believe  in  migration — believe  that  there 
are  thousands  in  the  Eastern  and  the  Middle  States 
who  would  improve  their  circumstances  and  prospects 
by  migrating  to  the  cheaper  lands  and  broader  oppor- 
tunities of  the  West  and  South.  For,  in  the  first 
place,  most  men  are  by  migration  rendered  more  en- 
ergetic and  aspiring ;  thrown  among  strangers,  they 
feel  the  necessity  of  exertion  as  they  never  felt  it  be- 
fore. Needing  almost  everything,  and  obliged  to 
rely  wholly  on  themselves,  they  work  in  their  new 
homes  as  they  never  did  in  their  old ;  and  the  conse- 
quences are  soon  visible  all  around  them. 

"  A  stern  chase  is  a  long  chase,"  say  the  sailors  ; 
and  he  who  buys  a  farm  mainly  on  credit,  intending 
to  pay  for  it  out  of  its  proceeds,  finds  interest,  taxes, 
sickness,  bad  seasons,  hail,  frost,  drouth,  tornadoes, 
floods,  &c.,  &c.,  deranging  his  calculations  and  im- 
peding his  progress,  until  he  is  often  impelled  to 
2 


26  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

give  up  in  despair.  There  are  men  who  can  sur- 
mount every  obstacle  and  defy  discouragement — 
these  need  no  advice  ;  but  there  are  thousands  who, 
having  little  means  and  large  families,  can  grow  into 
a  good  farm  more  easily  and  far  more  surely  than 
they  can  pay  for  it ;  and  these  may  wisely  seek  homes 
where  population  is  yet  sparse  and  land  is  consequent- 
ly cheap.  Doubtless,  some  migrate  who  might  bet- 
tor have  forborne ;  yet  the  instinct  which  draws  our 
race  toward  sunset  is  nevertheless  a  true  one.  The 
East  will  not  be  depopulated ;  but  the  West  will  grow 
more  rapidly  in  the  course  of  the  next  twenty  years 
than  ever  in  the  past.  The  Railroads  which  have 
brought  Kansas  and  Minnesota  within  three  days, 
and  California  within  a  week  of  us,  have  rendered 
this  inevitable. 

But  the  South  also  invites  immigration  as  she  never 
did  till  now.  Her  lands  are  still  very  cheap ;  she  is 
better  timbered,  in  the  average,  than  the  West ;  her 
climate  attracts;  her  unopened  mines  and  unused 
water-power  call  loudly  for  enterprise,  labor  and 
skill.  It  is  absurd  to  insist  that  her  soil  is  exhausted 
when  not  one-third  of  it  has  ever  yet  been  plowed. 
I  do  not  advise  solitary  migration  to  the  South,  be- 
cause she  needs  schools,  mills,  roads,  bridges, 
churches,  &c.,  &c.,  which  the  solitary  immigrant  can 
neither  provide  nor  well  do  without :  an<PI  have  no 
assurance  that  he,  if  obliged  to  work  out  for  present 
bread,  would  find  those  ready  to  employ  and  willing 
to  pay  him  ;  but  let  a  hundred  Northern  farmers  and 


WHEKE   TO   FAKM.  27 

mechanics  worth  $1,000  to  $3,000  each  combine  to 
select  (through  chosen  agents)  and  buy  ten  or  twenty 
thousand  acres  in  some  Southern  State,  embracing  hill 
and  vale,  timber  and  tillage,  water-power  and  miner- 
als, and  divide  it  equitably  among  themselves,  after 
laying  it  out  with  roads,  a  park,  a  village-plat,  sites 
for  churches,  schools,  &c.,  and  I  am  confident  that 
they  can  thus  make  pleasant  homes  more  cheaply  and 
speedily  there  than  almost  anywhere  else. 

Good  farming  land,  improved  or  unimproved,  is 
this  day  cheaper  in  the  United  States,  all  things  con- 
sidered, than  in  any  other  country — cheaper  than  it 
can  long  remain.  So  many  are  intent  on  short  cuts 
to  riches  that  the  soil  is  generally  neglected,  and  may 
be  bought  amazingly  cheap  in  parts  of  Connecticut 
as  well  as  in  Iowa  or  Nebraska.  When  I  was  last  in 
Illinois,  I  rode  for  some  hours  beside  a  gray-coated 
farmer  of  some  sixty  years,  who  told  me  this :  "  I 
came  here  thirty  years  ago,  and  took  up,  at  $1£  per 
acre,  a  good  tract  of  land,  mainly  in  timber.  I  am 
now  selling  off  the  timber  at  $100  per  acre,  reserv- 
ing the  land."  That  seems  to  me  a  good  operation — 
not  so  quick  as  a  corner  in  the  stock-market,  but 
far  safer.  And,  while  I  would  advise  no  man  to  incur 
debt,  I  say  most  earnestly  to  all  who  have  means, 
"  Look  out  the  place  where  you  would  prefer  to  live 
and  die ;  take  time  to  suit  yourself  thoroughly ; 
choose  it  with  reference  to  your  means,  your  calling, 
your  expectations,  and,  if  you  can  pay  for  it,  Twy  it. 
Do  not  imagine  that  land  is  cheap  in  the  West  or 


28  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

the  South  only ;  it  is  to  be  found  cheap  in  every 
State  by  those  who  are  able  to  own  and  who  know 
how  to  use  it.'' 

I  earnestly  trust  that  the  obvious  advantages  of 
settling  in  colonies  are  to  be  widely  and  rapidly  im- 
proved by  our  people,  nearly  as  follows :  One  thous- 
and heads  of  families  unite  to  form  a  colony,  contribute 
$100  to  $500  each  to  defray  the  cost  of  seeking  out 
and  securing  a  suitable  location,  and  send  out  two  or 
three  of  the  most  capable  and  trustworthy  of  their  num- 
ber to  find  and  purchase  it ;  and  now  let  their  lands  be 
surveyed  and  divided  into  village  or  city  lots  at  or  near 
the  center,  larger  allotments  (for  mechanics' and  mer- 
chants' homes)  surrounding  that  center,  and  far  larger 
(for  farms)  outside  of  these ;  an'd  let  each  member,  on 
or  soon  after  his  arrival,  select  a  village-lot,  out-lot, 
farm,  or  one  of  each  if  he  chooses  and  can  pay  for 
them.  Let  ample  reservations  of  the  best  sites  for 
churches,  school-houses,  a  town  hall,  public  park,  etc., 
be  made  in  laying  out  the  village,  and  let  each  pur- 
chaser of  a  lot  or  farm  be  required  to  plant  shade-trees 
along  the  highways  which  skirt  or  traverse  it.  If 
irrigation  by  common  effort  be  deemed  necessary,  let 
provision  be  made  for  that.  Run  up  a  large,  roomy 
structure  for  a  family  hotel  or  boarding-house ;  and 
now  invite  each  stockholder  to  come  on,  select  his  land, 
pay  for  it,  and  get  up  some  sort  of  a  dwelling,  leaving 
his  family  to  follow  when  this  shall  have  been  rendered 
habitable  ;  but,  if  they  insist  on  coming  on  with  him 
and  taking  their  chances,  so  be  it. 


IV. 


PREPARING   TO   FARM. 

I  WRITE  mainly  for  beginners — for  young  persons, 
and  some  not  so  young,  who  are  looking  to  farming 
as  the  vocation  to  which  their  future  years  are  to  be 
given,  by  which  their  living  is  to  be  gained.  In  this 
chapter,  I  would  counsel  young  men,  who,  not  having 
been  reared  in  personal  contact  with  the  daily  and 
yearly  round  of  a  farmer's  cares  and  duties,  purpose 
henceforth  to  live  by  farming. 

To  these  I  would  earnestly  say,  "  No  haste !"  Our 
boys  are  in  too  great  a  hurry  to  be  men.  They  want 
to  be  bosses  before  they  have  qualified  themselves  to 
be  efficient  journeymen.  I  have  personally  known 
several  instances  of  young  men,  fresh  from  school  or 
from  some  city  vocation,  buying  or  hiring  a  farm  and 
undertaking  to  work  it ;  and  I  cannot  now  recall  a 
single  instance  in  which  the  attempt  has  succeeded ; 
while  speedy  failure  has  been  the  usual  result.  The 
assumption  that  farming  is  a  rude,  simple  matter,  re- 
quiring little  intellect  and  less  experience,  has  buried 
many  a  well-meaning  youth  under  debts  which  the 
best  efforts  of  many  subsequent  years  will  barely 


30  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FAE1ONG. 

enable  him  to  pay  off.  In  my  opinion,  half  our  farm- 
ers now  living  would  say,  if  questioned,  that  they 
might  better  have  waited  longer  before  buying  or 
hiring  a  farm. 

When  I  was  ten  years  old,  my  father  took  a  job  of 
clearing  off  the  mainly  fallen  and  partially  rotten 
timber — largely  White  Pine  and  Black  Ash — from 
fifty  acres  of  level  and  then  swampy  land ;  and  he 
and  his  two  boys  gave  most  of  the  two  ensuing  years 
(1821-2)  to  the  rugged  task.  When  it  was  finished, 
1 — a  boy  of  twelve  years — could  have  taken  just  such 
a  tract  of  half-burned  primitive  forest  as  that  was 
when  we  took  hold  of  it,  and  cleared  it  by  an  expen- 
diture of  seventy  to  eighty  per  cent,  of  the  labor  we 
actually  bestowed  upon  that.  I  had  learned,  in  clear- 
ing this,  how  to  economize  labor  in  any  future  under- 
taking of  the  kind ;  and  so  every  one  learns  by  ex- 
perience who  steadily  observes  and  reflects.  He 
must  have  been  a  very  good  farmer  at  the  start,  or  a 
very  poor  one  afterward,  who  cannot  grow  a  thousand 
bushels  of  grain  much  cheaper  at  thirty  years  of  age 
than  he  could  at  twenty. 

To  every  young  man  who  has  had  no  farming  ex- 
perience, or  very  little,  yet  who  means  to  make  farm- 
ing his  vocation,  I  say,  Hire  out,  for  the  coming  year, 
to  the  very  best  farmer  who  will  give  you  anything 
like  the  value  of  your  labor.  Buy  a  very  few  choice 
books,  (if  you  have  them  not  already,)  which  treat 
of  Geology,  Chemistry,  Botany,  and  the  application 
of  their  truths  in  Practical  Agriculture ;  give  to  these 


PREPARING   TO   FARM.  31 

the  close  and  thoughtful  attention  of  your  few  leisure 
hours ;  keep  your  eyes  wide  open,  and  set  down  in  a 
note-book  or  pocket-diary  each  night  a  minute  of 
whatever  has  been  done  on  the  farm  that  day,  making 
a  note  of  each  storm,  shower,  frost,  hail,  etc.,  and 
also  of  the  date  at  which  each  planted  crop  requires 
tillage  or  is  ripe  enough  to  harvest,  and  ascertaining, 
so  far  as  possible,  what  each  crop  produced  on  the 
farm  has  cost,  and  which  of  them  all  are  produced  at 
a  profit  and  which  at  a  loss.  At  the  year's  end,  hire 
again  to  the  same  or  another  good  farmer  and  pursue 
the  same  course ;  and  so  do  till  you  shall  be  twenty- 
ftnir  or  twenty-five  years  of  age,  which  is  young 
enough  to  marry,  and  quite  young  enough  to  under- 
take the  management-  of  a  farm.  By  this  time,  if 
you  have  carefully  saved  and  wisely  invested  your 
earnings,  you  will  have  several  hundred  dollars ;  and, 
if  you  do  not  choose  to  migrate  to  some  region  where 
land  is  very  cheap,  you  will  have  found  some  one 
willing  to  sell  you  a  small  farm  on  credit,  taldng  a 
long  mortgage  as  security.  Your  money — assuming 
that  you  have  only  what  you  will  have  earned — will 
all  be  wanted  to  fix  up  your  building,  buy  a  team  and 
cow,  with  the  few  implements  needed,  and  supply 
you  with  provisions  till  you  can  grow  some.  If  you 
can  start  thus  experienced  and  full-handed,  you  may, 
by  diligence,  combined  with  good  fortune,  begin  to 
make  payments  on  your  mortgage  at  the  close  of 
your  second  year. 

I  hate  debt  as  profoundly  as  any  one  can,  but  I  do 


32  WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FARMING. 

not  consider  this  really  running  into  debt.  One  has 
more  land  than  he  needs,  and  does  not  need  his  pay 
for  it  forthwith ;  another  wants  land,  but  lacks  the 
means  of  present  payment.  They  two  enter  into  an 
agreement  mutually  advantageous,  whereby  the  poor- 
er has  the  present  use  and  ultimate  fee -simple  of  the 
farm  in  question,  in  consideration  of  the  payment  of 
certain  sums  as  duly  stipulated.  Technically,  the 
buyer  becomes  a  debtor ;  practically,  I  do  not  regard 
him  as  such,  until  payments  fall  due  which  he  is  un- 
able promptly,  to  meet.  Let  him  rigorously  avoid 
all  other  debt,  and  he  need  not  shrink  from  nor  be 
ashamed  of  this. 

I  have  a  high  regard  for  scientific  attainments ;  I 
wish  every  young  man  were  thoroughly  instructed  in 
the  sciences  which  underlie  the  art  of  farming.  But 
all  the  learning  on  earth,  though  it  may  powerfully 
help  to  make  a  good  farmer,  would  not  of  itself  make 
one.  When  a  young  man  has  learned  all  that  semi- 
narie'fe  and  lectures,  books  and  cabinets,  can  teach 
him,  he  still  needs  practice  and  experience  to  make 
him  a  good  farmer. 

— "But  would  n't  you  have  a  young  man  study  in 
order  that  he  may  become  a  good  farmer?" 

— If  he  has  money,  Yes.  I  believe  a  youth  worth 
four  or  five  thousand  dollars  may  wisely  spend  a 
tenth  of  his  means  in  attending  lectures,  and  even 
courses  of  study,  at  any  good  seminary  where  Natural 
Science  is  taught  and  applied  to  Agriculture.  But 
life  is  short  at  best ;  and  he  who  has  no  means,  or 


PREPARING   TO   FARM.  33 

very  little,  cannot  really  afford  to  attend  even  an 
Agricultural  College.  He  can  acquire  so  much  of 
Science  as  is  indispensable  in  the  cheaper  way  I  have 
indicated.  Re  cannot  wisely  consent  to  spend  the 
best  years  of  his  life  in  getting  ready  to  live. 

He  who  has  already  mastered  the  art  of  farming, 
and  has  adequate  means,  may  of  course  buy  a  farm 
to-morrow,  though  he  be  barely  or  not  quite  of  age. 
He  has  little  to  learn  from  me.  Yet  I  think  even 
such  have  often  concluded,  in  after  years,  that  they 
were  too  hasty  in  buying  land — that  they  might 
profitably  have  waited,  and  deliberated,  and  garnered 
the  treasures  of  experience,  before  they  took  the  grave 
step  of  buying  their  future  home ;  with  regard  to 
which  I  shall  make  some  suggestions  in  my  next 
chapter. 

But  I  protest  against  a  young  man's  declining  or 
postponing  the  purchase  of  a  farm  merely  because  he 
is  not  able  to  buy  a  great  one.  Twenty  acres  of  ara- 
ble soil  near  a  city  or  manufacturing  village,  forty 
acres  in  a  rural  district  of  any  old  State,  or  eighty 
acres  in  a  region  just  beginning  to  be  peopled  by 
White  men,  is  an  ample  area  for  any  one  who  is  worth 
less  than  $2,000.  If  he  understands  his  business,  he 
will  find  profitable  employment  hereon  for  every 
working  hour :  if  he  does  not  understand  farming, 
he  will  buy  his  experience  dear  enough  on  this,  yet 
more  cheaply  than  he  would  on  a  wider  area.  Until 
he  shall  have  more  money  than  he  needs,  let  him  be- 
ware of  buying  more  land  than  he  absolutely  wants. 
2* 


V. 


BUYING   A   FARM. 

No  one  need  be  told  at  this  day  that  good  land  is 
cheaper  than  poor — that  the  former  may  be  bought 
at  less  cost  than  it  can  be  made.  Yet  this,  like 
most  truths,  may  be  given  undue  emphasis.  It 
should  be  considered  in  the  light  of  the  less  obvious 
truth  that  Every  farmer  may  make  advantageous  use 
of  SOME  poor  land.  The  smallest  farm  should  have 
its  strip  or  belt  of  forest ;  the  larger  should  have  an 
abundance  and  variety  of  trees ;  and  sterile,  stony 
land  grows  many  if  not  most  trees  thriftily.  Even 
at  the  risk  of  arousing  "Western  prejudice,  I  maintain 
that  New-England,  and  all  broken,  hilly,  rocky 
countries,  have  a  decided  advantage  (abundantly 
counterbalanced,  no  doubt)  over  regions  of  great  fer- 
tility and  nearly  uniform  facility,  in  that  human 
stupidity  and  mole-eyed  greed  can  never  wholly  di- 
vest them  of  forests — that  their  sterile  crags  and 

o 

steep  acclivities  must  mainly  be  left  to  wood  forever. 
Avarice  may  strip  them  of  their  covering  of  to-day; 
but,  defying  the  plow  and  the  spade,  they  cannot  be 
BO  denuded  that  they  will  not  be  speedily  reclothed 
with  trees  and  foliage. 

(34) 


BUYING   A   FARM.  35 

I  am  not  a  believer  that  "  Five  Acres  "  or  "  Ten 
Acres  "  suffice  for  a  farm.  I  know  where  money  is 
made  on  even  fewer  than  five  acres ;  but  they  who 
do  it  are  few,  and  men  of  exceptional  capacity  and 
diligence.  Their  achievements  are  necessarily  con- 
fined to  the  vicinage  of  cities  or  manufacturing  vil- 
lages. The  great  majority  of  all  who  live  by  Agri- 
culture want  room  to  turn  upon — want  to  grow  grass 
and  keep  stock — and,  for  such,  no  mere  garden  or 
potato-patch  will  answer.  They  want  genuine  farms. 

Yet,  go  where  you.  may  in  this  country,  you  will 
hear  a  farmer  saying  of  his  neighbor,  "  He  has  too 
much  land,"  even  where  the  criticism  might  justly 
be  reciprocated.  "We  cannot  all  be  mistaken  on  this 
head. 

There  are  men  who  can  each  manage  thousands 
of  acres  of  tillage,  just  as  there  are  those  who  can 
skillfully  wield  an  army  of  a  hundred  thousand  men. 
Napoleon  said  there  were  two  of  this  class  in  the 
Europe  of  his  day.  There  are  others  who  cannot 
handle  a  hundred  acres  so  that  nothing  is  lost  through 
neglect  or  oversight.  Rules  must  be  adapted  to 
average  capacities  and  circumstances.  He  who  ex- 
pects to  live  by  cattle-rearing  needs  many  more  acres 
than  he  who  is  intent  on  grain-growing ;  while  he 
who  contemplates  vegetable,  root,  and  fruit  culture, 
needs  fewer  acres  still.  As  to  the  direction  of  his 
efforts,  each  one  will  be  a  law  unto  himself. 

If  I  were  asked,  by  a  young  man  intent  on  farm- 
ing, to  indicate  the  proper  area  for  him,  I  would 


36  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAKMING. 

say,  Buy  just  so  large  a  farm  as  half  your  means 
witt  pay  for.  In  other  words,  "  If  you  are~  worth 
$20,000,  invest  half  of  it  in  land,  the  residue  in 
Btock,  tools,  etc. ;  and  observe  the  same  rule  of  pro- 
portion, whether  you  be  worth  $1,000,000  or  only 
$1,000.  If  you  are  worth  just  nothing  at  all,  I 
would  invest  in  land  the  half  of  that,  and  no  more. 
In  other  words,  I  would  either  wait  to  earn  $500  or 
over,  or  push  "Westward  till  I  found  land  that  costs 
practically  nothing. 

This,  then,  I  take  to  be  the  gist  of  the  popular 
criticism  on  our  farmers  as  having  unduly  enlarged 
their  borders  :  They  have  more  land  than  tJiey  have 
capital  to  stock  and  till  to  the  ~best  advantage.  He 
who  has  but  fifty  acres  has  too  much  if  he  lets  part 
of  his  land  lie  idle  and  unproductive  for  lack  of  team 
or  hands  to  till  it  efficiently ;  while  he  who  has  a 
thousand  acres  has  none  too  much  if  he  has  the  means 
and  talents  wherewith  to  make  the  best  of  it  all. 

I  have  said  that  I  consider  the  soil  of  New  Eng- 
land as  cheap,  all  things  considered,  for  him  who  is 
able  to  buy  and  work  it,  as  that  of  Minnesota  or  Ar- 
kansas— that  I  urge  migration  to  the  "West  only  upon 
those  who  cannot  pay  for  farms  in  the  old  States.  I 
doubt  whether  the  farmers  of  any  other  section  have, 
in  the  average,  done  better,  throughout  the  last  ten 
years,  than  the  butter-makers  of  Yermont,  the  cheese- 
dairymen  of  this  State.  And  yet  there  is,  in  the 
ridgy,  rocky,  patchy  character  of  most  of  our  Eastern 
faring,  an  insuperable  barrier  to  the  most  economic, 


BUYING  A  FAEil.  87 

effective  cultivation.  If  the  ridges  were  further 
apart — if  each  rocky  or  gravelly  knoll  were  not  in 
close  proximity  to  a  strip  of  bog  or  morass — it  would 
be  different.  But  the  genius  of  our  age  points  un- 
mistakably to  cultivation  by  steam  or  some  other  me- 
chanical application  of  power ;  and  this  requires 
spacious  fields,  with  few  or  no  obstacles  to  the  equa- 
ble progress  of  the  plow.  I  apprehend  that,  for  this 
reason,  the  growth  of  bread-corn  eastward  of  the 
Hudson  can  never  more  be  considerably  extended, 
so  long  as  the  boundless,  fertile  prairies  can  so  easily 
pour  their  exhaustless  supplies  upon  us.  Fruits, 
Vegetables,  Roots  and  Grass,  we  must  continue  to 
grow,  probably  in  ever-increasing  abundance ;  but 
we  of  the  East  will  buy  our  bread-corn  largely  if  not 
mainly  from  the  West. 

He,  therefore,  who  buys  land  in  the  Eastern  States 
should  regard  primarily  its  capacity  to  produce  those 
crops  in  which  the  East  can  never  be  supplanted — 
Grass,  Fruits,  Vegetables,  Timber.  If  a  farm  will 
also  produce  good  Corn  or  Wheat,  that  is  a  recom- 
mendation ;  but  let  him  place  a  higher  value  on  those 
capacities  which  will  be  more  generally  required  and 
drawn  upon. 

In  the  West,  the  case  is  different;  for,  though 
Wheat-culture  still  recedes  before  the  footsteps  of 
advancing  population,  and  Minnesota  may  soon  cease 
to  grow  for  others,  as  Western  New- York,  Ohio,  In- 
diana, and  Northern  Illinois,  have  already  done,  yet 
Indian  Corn,  being  the  basis  of  both  Beef  and  Pork, 


38  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

will  long  hold  its  own  in  the  Yalley  of  the  Ohio  and 
in  that  of  the  Upper  Mississippi.  As  it  recedes 
slowly  Westward,  Clover  and  Timothy,  Butter  and 
Cheese,  will  press  closely  on  its  footsteps. 

Good  neighbors,  good  roads,  good  schools,  good 
mechanics  at  hand,  and  a  good  church  within  reach, 
will  always  be  valued  and  sought :  few  farmers  are 
likely  to  disregard  them.  Let  whoever  buys  a  farm 
whereon  to  live  resolve  to  buy  once  for  all,  and  let 
him  not  forget  that  health  is  not  only  wealth  but 
happiness — that  an  eligible  location  and  a  beautiful 
prospect  are  elements  of  enjoyment  not  only  for  our- 
selves but  our  friends  ;  let  him  not  fancy  that  all  the 
land  will  soon  be  gobbled  up  and  held  at  exorbitant 
prices,  but  believe  that  money  will  almost  always 
command  money's  worth  of  whatever  may  be  need- 
ed, so  that  he  need  not  embarrass  himself  to-day 
through  fear  that  he  may  not  be  able  to  find  seller's 
to-morrow,  and  he  can  hardly  fail  to  buy  judiciously, 
and  thus  escape  that  worst  species  of  home-sickness — 
sickness  of  home. 


VI. 


LAYING   OFF   A   FARM — PASTURING. 

WHOEVER  finds  himself  the  newly  installed  owner 
and  occupant  of  a  farm,  should,  before  doing  much 
beyond  growing  a  crop  in  the  ordinary  way,  study 
well  its  character,  determine  its  capacities,  make  him- 
self well  acquainted  with  its  peculiarities  of  soil  and 
surface,  with  intent  to  make  the  most  of  it  in  his  fu- 
ture operations.  I  would  devote  at  least  a  year  to 
this  thoughtful  observation  and  study. 

To  one  reared  amid  the  rugged  scenery  of  New- 
England,  or  on  either  slope  of  the  Allegheny  ridge, 
all  prairie  farms  look  alike,  just  as  a  European  sup- 
poses this  to  be  the  case  with  all  negroes.  A  better 
acquaintance  will  show  the  average  prairie  quarter- 
section  by  no  means  an  unbroken  meadow,  "  level  as 
a  house -floor,"  but  diversified  by  water-courses, 
"  sloughs,"  and  gentle  acclivities — sometimes  by  con- 
siderable ravines  and  "  barrens  "  or  elevated  "  swales," 
thinly  covered  with  timber,  or  brush,  or  both.  But 
I  will  contemplate  more  especially  a  Northern  farm, 
made  up  of  hill  and  vale  or  glade,  rocky  ridge  and 
skirting  bog  or  other  low  land,  with  a  wood-lot  on 

(39) 


4:0  WHAT  I  KNOW   OF  FABMOTG. 

the  rear  or  not  far  distant,  and  clumps  or  belts  of 
timber  irregularly  lining  brook  and  ravine,  or  lurk- 
ing in  the  angles  and  sinuosities  of  walls  and  wooden 
fences,  and  a  ragged,  mossy  orchard  sheltered  in  some 
quiet  nook,  or  sprawling  over  some  gravelly  hill-side. 
A  brook,  nearly  dry  in  August,  gurgles  down  the 
hill-side  or  winds  through  the  swamp ;  while  fields, 
moderately  sloping  here  and  nearly  level  there,  in- 
terposed as  they  can  be,  have  severally  been  devoted, 
for  a  generation  or  more,  alternately  to  Grain  and 
Grass — the  latter  largely  preponderating.  We  will 
suppose  this  farm  to  measure  from  50  to  150  acres. 

Now,  the  young  man  who  has  bought  or  inherited 
this  farm  may  be  wholly  and  consciously  unable  to 
enter  upon  any  expensive  system  of  improvement 
for  the  next  ten  years — may  fully  realize  that  four  or 
five  days  of  each  week  must  meantime  be  given  to 
the  growing  or  earning  of  present  bread — yet  he 
should  none  the  less  study  well  the  capacities  and 
adaptations  of  each  acre,  and  -mature  a  comprehen- 
sive plan  for  the  ultimate  bringing  of  each  field  into 
the  best  and  most  useful  condition  whereof  it  is  sus- 
ceptible, before  he  cuts  a  living  tree  or  digs  a  solitary 
drain.  He  is  morally  certain  of  doing  something — 
perhaps  many  things — that  he  will  sadly  wish  un- 
done, if  he  fails  to  study  peculiarities  and  mature  a 
plan  before  he  begins  to  improve  or  to  fit  his  several 
fields  for  profitable  cultivation. 

And  the  first  selection  to  be  made  is  that  of  a  pas- 
ture, since  I  am  compelled  to  use  an  old,  familiar 


LAYING   OFF   A   FAKM — PASTURING.  4:1 

name  for  what  should  be  essentially  a  new  thing. 
This  pasture  should  be  as  near  the  center  of  the  farm 
as  may  be,  and  convenient  to  the  barns  and  barn- 
yard that  are  to  be.  It  should  have  some  shade,  but 
no  very  young  trees;  should  be  dry  and  rolling,  with 
an  abundance  of  the  purest  living  water.  The 
smaller  this  pasture-lot  may  be,  the  better  I  shall  like 
it,  provided  you  fence  it  very  stoutly,  connect  it  with 
the  barn-yard  by  a  lane  if  they  are  not  in  close  prox- 
imity, and  firmly  resolve  that,  outside  of  this  lot,  this 
lane,  this  yard  and  the  adjacent  stable,  your  cattle 
shall  never  be  seen,  unless  on  the  road  to  market. 
Very  possibly,  the  day  may  come  wherein  you  will 
decide  to  dispense  with  pasturing  altogether;  but 
that  is,  for  the  present,  improbable.  One  pasture  you 
will  have ;  if  yon  li ve  in  the  broad  "West,  and  purpose 
to  graze  extensively,  it  will  doubtless  be  a  large  one ; 
but  permitting  your  stock  to  ramble  in  Spring  and 
Fall  ah1  over  your  own  fields — (and  perhaps  your 
neighbors'  also) — in  quest  of  their  needful  food,  biting 
off  the  tops  of  the  finer  young  trees,  trampling  down 
or  breaking  off  some  that  are  older,  rubbing  the 
bark  off  of  your  growing  fruit-trees,  and  doing  dam- 
age that  years  will  be  required  to  repair,  I  most 
vehemently  protest  against. 

The  one  great  error  that  misleads  and  corrupts 
mankind  is  the  presumption  that  something  may  be 
had  for  nothing.  The  average  farmer  imagines  that 
whatever  of  flesh  or  of  milk  may  accrue  to  him  from 
the  food  his  cattle  obtain  by  browsing  over  his  fields 


4:2  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

or  through  his  woods,  is  so  much  clear  gain — that 
they  do  the  needful  work,  while  he  pockets  the  net 
proceeds.  But  the  universe  was  framed  on  a  plan 
which  requires  so  much  for  so  much ;  and  this  law 
will  not  submit  to  defiance  or  evasion.  Under  the 
unnatural,  exceptional  conditions  which  environ  the 
lone  squatter  on  a  vast  prairie,  something  may  be 
made  by  turning  cattle  loose  and  letting  them  shift 
for  themselves;  but  this  is  at  best  transitory,  and  at 
war  with  the  exigencies  of  civilization.  Whoever 
lives  within  sight  of  a  school-house,  or  within  hear- 
ing of  a  church-bell,  is  under  the  dominion  of  a  law 
alike  inexorable  and  beneficent — the  law  that  requires 
each  to  pay  for  all  he  gets,  and  reap  only  where  he 
has  sown. 

You  can  hardly  have  a  pasture  so  small  that  it  will 
not  afford  hospitality  to  weeds  and  prove  a  source 
of  multiform  infestations.  The  plants  that  should 
mature  and  be  diffused  will  be  kept  down  to  the 
earth ;  those  which  should  be  warred  upon  and  eradi- 
cated will  flourish  untouched,  ripen  their  seed,  and 
diffuse  it  far  and  wide.  Thistles,  White  Daisy,  and 
every  plant  that  impedes  tillage  and  diminishes  crops, 
are  nourished  and  diffused  by  means  of  pastures. 

I  hold,  therefore,  that  the  good  farmer  will  run  a 
mowing-machine  over  his  pasture  twice  each  Sum- 
mer— say  early  in  June,  and  then  late  in  July — or, 
if  his  lot  be  too  rough  for  this,  will  have  it  clipped 
at  least  once  with  a  scythe.  Cutting  all  manner  of 
worthless  if  not  noxious  plants  in  the  blossom,  will 


LAYING   OFF   A    FARM — PASTURING.  43 

benefit  the  soil  which  their  seeding  would  tax;  it 
will  render  the  eradication  of  weeds  from  your  till- 
age a  far  easier  task ;  and*  it  will  prevent  your  being 
a  nuisance  to  your  neighbors.  I  am  confident  that 
no  one  who  has  formed  the  habit  of  keeping  down 
the  weeds  in  his  pasture  will  ever  abandon  it. 

I  think  each  pasture  should  have  (though  mine,  as 
yet,  has  not)  a  rude  shed  or  other  shelter  whereto  the 
cattle  may  resort  in  case  of  storm  or  other  inclemency. 
How  much  they  shrink  as  well  as  suffer  from  one  cold, 
pelting  rain,  few  fully  realize ;  but  I  am  sure  that 
"  the  merciful  man"  who  (as  the  Scripture  says)  "  is 
merciful  to  his  beast,"  finds  his  humanity  a  good  pay- 
ing investment.  I  doubt  that  the  rule  would  fail, 
even  in  Texas  ;  but  I  am  contemplating  civilized  hus- 
bandry, not  the  rude  conditions  of  tropical  semi-bar- 
barism. If  only  by  means  of  stakes  and  straw,  give 
cattle  a  chance  to  keep  dry  and  warm  when  they 
must  otherwise  shiver  through  a  rainy,  windy  day 
and  night  on  the  cold,  wet'  ground,  and  I 'am  sure 
they  will  pay  for  it. 

In  confining  a  herd  of  cattle  to  such  narrow  limits, 
I  do  not  intend  that  they  shall  be  stinted  to  what 
grows  there.  On  the  contrary,  I  expect  them  to  be 
fed  on  Winter  Rye,  on  Cut  Grass,  on  Sowed  Corn, 
Sorghum,  Stalks,  Roots,  etc.,  etc.,  as  each  shall  be  in 
season.  "With  a  good  mower,  it  is  a  light  hour's  work 
before  breakfast  to  cut  and  cart  to  a  dozen  or  twenty 
head  as  much  grass  or  corn  as  they  will  eat  during  the 
day.  But  let  that  point  stand  over  for  the  present. 


YIL 

TREES — WOODLAND — FOKESTS. 

I  AM  not  at  all  sentimental — much  less  mawkish — 
regarding  the  destruction  of  trees.  Descended  from 
several  generations  of  timber-cutters  (for  my  paternal 
ancestors  came  to  America  in  1640),  and  myself  en- 
gaged for  three  years  in  land-clearing,  I  realize  that 
trees  exist  for  use  rather  than  for  ornament,  and  have 
no  more  scruple  as  to  cutting  timber  in  a  forest  than 
as  to  cutting  grass  in  a  meadow.  Utility  is  the  rea- 
son and  end  of  all  vegetable  growth — of  a  hickory's 
no  less  than  a  cornstalk's.  I  have  always  considered 
"  "Woodman,  spare  that  tree,"  just  about  the  most 
mawkish  bit  of  badly  versified  prose  in  our  language, 
and  never  could  guess  how  it  should  touch  the  sen- 
sibilities of  any  one.  Understand,  then,  that  I  urge 
the  planting  of  trees  mainly  because  I  believe  it  will 
pay,  and  the  preservation,  improvement,  and  exten- 
sion, of  forests,  for  precisely  that  reason. 

Yet  I  am  not  insensible  to  the  beauty  and  grace 
lent  by  woods,  and  groves,  and  clumps  or  rows  of 
trees,  to  the  landscape  they  diversify.  I  feel  the 
force  of  Emerson's  averment,  that  "Beauty  is  its 

(44) 


TREES — WOODLAND FOBESTS.  45 

own  excuse  for  being,"  and  know  that  a  homestead 
embowered  in,  belted  by,  stately,  graceful  elms, 
maples,  and  evergreens,  is  really  worth  more,  and 
will  sell  for  more,  than  if  it  were  naked  field  and 
meadow.  I  consider  it  one  positive  advantage  (to 
balance  many  disadvantages)  of  our  rocky,  hilly, 
rugged  Eastern  country,  that  it  will  never,  in  all 
probability,  be  so  denuded  of  forests  as  the  rich, 
facile  prairies  and  swales  of  the  Great  Valley  may  be. 
Our  winds  are  less  piercing,  our  tornadoes  less  de- 
structive, than  those  of  the  Great  West.  I  doubt 
whether  there  is  another  equal  area  of  the  earth's 
surface  whereon  so  many  kinds  of  valuable  trees  grow 
spontaneously  and  rapidly,  defying  eradication,  as 
throughout  New-England  and  on  either  slope  of  the 
Alleghenies  ;  and  this  profusion  of  timber  and  foliage 
may  well  atone  for,  or  maybe  fairly  weighed  against, 
many  deficiencies  and  drawbacks.  The  Yankee,  who 
has  been  accustomed  to  see  trees  spring  up  spontane- 
ously wherever  they  were  not  kept  down  by  ax,  or 
plow,  or  scythe,  and  to  cross  rtmning  water  every 
half  mile  of  a  Summer  day's  journey,  may  well  be 
made  homesick,  by  two  thousand  miles  of  naked, 
dusty,  wind-swept  Plains,  whereon  he  finds  no  water 
for  fifty  to  a  hundred  miles,  and  knows  it  impossible 
to  cut  an  ax-helve,  much  more  an  axle-tree,  in  the 
course  of  a  wearying  journey.  No  Eastern  farmer 
ever  realized  the  blessedness  of  abundant  and  excel- 
lent wood  and  water  until  he  had  wandered  far  from 
his  boyhood's  home. 


46  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

No  one  may  yet  be  able  fully  to  explain  the  inter- 
dependence of  these  two  blessings  ;  but  the  fact  re- 
mains. All  over  "  the  Plains,"  there  is  evidence  that 
trees  grew  and  flourished  where  none  are  now  found, 
and  that  springs  and  streams  were  then  frequent  and 
abiding  where  none  now  exist.  A  prominent  citizen 
of  Nevada,  who  explored  southward  from  Austin  to 
the  Colorado,  assured  me  that  his  party  traveled  for 
days  in  the  bed  of  what  had  once  been  a  considerable 
river,  but  in  which  it  was  evident  that  no  water  had 
flowed  for  years.  And  I  have  heard  that,  since  the 
Mormons  have  planted  trees  over  considerable  sec- 
tions of  Utah,  rains  in  Summer  are  no  longer  rare, 
and  Salt  Lake  evinces,  by  a  constant  though  moder- 
ate increase  of  her  volume  of  waters,  that  the  equilib- 
rium of  rain-fall  with  evaporation  in  the  Great 
Basin  has  been  fully  restored — or  rather,  that  the 
rain-fall  is  now  taking  the  lead. 

I  have  a  firm  faith  that  all  the  great  deserts  of  the 
Temperate  and  Torrid  Zones  will  yet  be  reclaimed 
by  irrigation  and  tfee-planting.  The  bill  which  Con- 
gress did  not  pass,  nor  really  consider,  whereby  it 
was  proposed,  some  years  since,  to  give  a  section  of 
the  woodless  Public  Lands  remote  from  settlement  to 
every  one  who,  in  a  separate  township,  would  plant 
and  cherish  a  quarter-section  of  choice  forest-trees, 
ought  to  have  been  passed — with  modifications,  per- 
haps, but  preserving  the  central  idea.  Had  ten  thous- 
and quarter-sections,  in  so  many  different  townships 
of  the  Plains,  been  thus  planted  to  timber  ten  to 


TREES — WOODLAKD FORESTS.  47 

twenty  years  ago,  and  protected  from  fire  and  devas- 
tation till  now,  the  value  of  those  Plains  for  settle- 
ment would  have  been  nearly  or  quite  doubled. 

A  capital  mistake,  it  seems  to  me,  is  being  made  by 
some  of  the  dairy  farmers  of  our  own  State.  One 
who  has  a  hundred  acres  of  good  soil,  whereof  twenty 
or  thirty  are  wooded,  cuts  off  his  timber  entirely,  cal- 
culating that  the  additional  grass  that  he  may  grow 
in  its  stead  will  pay  for  all  the  coal  he  needs  for  fuel, 
so  that  he  will  make  a  net  gain  of  the  time  he  has 
hitherto  devoted  each  Winter  to  cutting  and  hauling 
wood.  He  does  not  consider  how  much  his  soil  will 
lose  in  Summer  moisture,  how  his  springs  and  run- 
nels will  be  dried  up,  nor  how  the  sweep  of  harsh 
winds  will  be  intensified,  by  baring  his  hill-tops  and 
ravines  to  sun  and  breeze  so  utterly.  In  my  deliber- 
ate judgment,  a  farm  of  one  hundred  acres  will  yield 
more  feed,  with  far  greater  uniformity  of  product  from 
year  to  year,  if  twenty  acres  of  its  ridge-crests,  ravine- 
sides,  and  rocky  places,  are  thickly  covered  with  tim- 
ber, than  if  it  be  swept  clean  of  trees  and  all  devoted 
to  grass.  Hence,  I  insist  that  the  farmer  who  sweeps 
oft'  his  wood  and  resolves  to  depend  on  coal  for  fuel, 
hoping  to  increase  permanently  the  product  of  his 
dairy,  makes  a  sad  miscalculation. 

Spain,  Italy,  and  portions  of  France,  are  now  suf- 
fering from  the  improvidence  that  devoured  their  for- 
ests, leaving  the  future  to  take  care  of  itself.  I  pre- 
sume the  great  empires  of  antiquity  suffered  from  the 
same  folly,  though  to  a  much  greater  extent.  The 


4:8  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

remains  of  now  extinct  races  who  formerly  peopled 
and  tilled  the  central  valleys  of  this  continent,  and 
especially  the  Territory  of  Arizona,  probably  bear 
witness  to  a  similar  recklessness,  which  is  paralleled 
by  our  fathers'  and  our  own  extermination  of  the 
magnificent  forests  of  White  Pine  which,  barely  a 
century  ago,  covered  so  large  a  portion  of  the  soil  of 
our  Northern  States.  Yermont  sold  White  Pine 
abundantly  to  England  through  Canada  within  my 
day  :  she  is  now  supplying  her  own  wants  from  Can- 
ada at  a  cost  of  not  less  than  five  times  the  price  she 
sold  for ;  and  she  will  be  paying  still  higher  rates  be- 
fore the  close  of  this  century.  I  entreat  our  farmers 
not  to  preserve  every  tree,  good,  bad,  or  indifferent, 
that  may  happen  to  be  growing  on  their  lands — but, 
outside  of  the  limited  districts  wherein  the  primitive 
forest  must  still  be  cut  away  in  order  that  land  may 
be  obtained  for  cultivation,  to  plant  and  rear  at  least 
two  better  trees  for  every  one  they  may  be  impelled  to 
cut  down.  How  this  may,  in  the  average,  be  most 
judiciously  done,  I  will  try  to  indicate  in  the  suc- 
ceeding chapter. 


YIIL 

GROWING    TIMBER — TREE-PL  ANTING. 

IN  my  judgment,  the  proportion  of  a  small  farm 
that  should  be  constantly  devoted  to  trees  (other  than 
fruit)  is  not  less  than  one-fourth  ;  while,  of  farms  ex- 
ceeding one  hundred  acres  in  area,  that  proportion 
should  be  not  less  than  one-third,  and  may  often  be 
profitably  increased  to  one-half.  I  am  thinking  of 
such  as  are  in  good  part  superficially  rugged  and 
rocky,  or  sandy  and  sterile,  such  as  New-England, 
eastern  New- York,  northern  New-Jersey,  with  both 
dopes  of  the  Alleghenies,  as  well  as  the  western  third 
of  our  continent,  abound  in.  It  may  be  that  it  is  ad- 
visable to  be  content  with  a  smaller  proportion  of 
timber  in  the  Prairie  States  and  the  broad,  fertile  in- 
tervales which  embosom  most  of  our  great  rivers  for 
at  least  a  part  of  their  course ;  but  I  doubt  it.  And 
there  is  scarcely  a  farm  in  the  whole  country,  outside 
of  the  great  primitive  forests  in  which  openings  have 
but  recently  been  made,  in  which  some  tree-planting 
is  not  urgently  required. 

"  Too  much  land,"  you  will  hear  assigned  on  every 
side  as  a  reason  for  poor  farming  and  meager  crops. 
3  («> 


50  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

Ask  an  average  farmer  in  New-England,  in  Virginia, 
in  Kentucky,  or  in  Alabama,  why  the  crops  of  his 
section  are  in  the  average  no  better,  and  the  answer, 
three  times  in  four,  will  be,  "  Our  farmers  have  too 
much  land" — that  is,  not  too  much  absolutely,  but 
too  much  relatively  to  their  capital,  stock,  and  gen- 
eral ability  to  till  effectively.  The  habitual  grower 
of  poor  crops  will  proffer  this  explanation  quite  as 
freely  and  frequently  as  his  more  thrifty  neighbor. 
And  what  every  one  asserts  must  have  a  basis  of 
truth. 

Now,  I  do  not  mean  to  quarrel  with  the  instinct 
which  prompts  my  countrymen  to  buy  and  hold  too 
much  land.  They  feel,  as  I  do,  that  land  is  still 
cheap  almost  anywhere  in  this  country — cheap,  if  not 
in  view  of  the  income  now  derived  from  it,  cer- 
tainly in  contemplation  of  the  price  it  must  soon 
command  and  the  income  it  might,  under  better 
management,  be  made  to  yield.  Under  this  convic- 
tion— or,  if  you  please,  impression — every  one  is  in- 
tent on  holding  on  to  more  land  than  he  can  profit- 
ably till,  if  not  more  than  he  can  promptly  pay  for. 

What  I  do  object  to  is  simply  this — that  thousands, 
who  have  more  land  than  they  have  capital  to  work 
profitably,  will  persist  in  half-tilling  many  acres,  in- 
stead of  thoroughly  farming  one-half  or  one  third  so 
many,  and  getting  the  rest  into  wood  so  fast  as  may 
be.  I  am  confident  that  two-thirds  of  all  our  farm- 
ers would  improve  their  circumstances  and  increase 
their  incomes  by  concentrating  their  efforts,  their 


GROWING   TIMBER TREE -PL ANTING.  51 

means,  their  fertilizers,  upon  half  to  two-thirds  of 
the  area  they  now  skim  and  skin,  and  giving  the 
residue  back  to  timber-growing. 

In  my  own  hilly,  rocky,  often  boggy,  "Westchester 
— probably  within  six  of  being  the  oldest  Agricul- 
tural County  in  the  Union — I  am  confident  that  ten 
thousand  acres  might  to-morrow  be  given  back  to 
forest  with  profit  to  the  owners  and  advantage  to  all 
its  inhabitants.  It  is  a  fruit-growing,  milk-producing, 
truck-farming  county,  closely  adjoining  the  greatest 
city  of  the  New  World ;  hence,  one  wherein  land  can 
be  cultivated  as  profitably  as  almost  anywhere  else — 
yet  I  am  satisfied  that  half  its  surface  may  be  more 
advantageously  devoted  to  timber  than  to  grass  or 
tillage.  Nay ;  I  doubt  that  one  acre  in  a  hundred 
of  rocky  land — that  is,  land  ribbed  or  dotted  with 
rocks  that  the  bar  or  the  rock-hook  cannot  lift  from 
their  beds,  and  which  it  will  not  as  yet  pay  to  blast 
— is  now  tilled  to  profit,  or  ever  will  be  until  it  shall 
be  found  advisable  to  clear  them  utterly  of  stone 
breaking  through  or  rising  within  two  feet  of  the  sur- 
face. The  time  will  doubtless  arrive  in  which  many 
fields  will  pay  for  clearing  of  stone  that  would  not 
to-day ;  these,  I  urge,  should  be  given  up  to  wood 
now,  and  kept  wooded  until  the  hour  shall  have  struck 
for  ridding  them  of  every  impediment  to  the  steady 
progress  of  both  the  surface  and  the  subsoil  plow. 

Were  all  the  rocky  crests  and  rugged  acclivities  of 
this  County  bounteously  wooded  once  more,  and  kept 
so  for  a  generation,  our  floods  would  be  less  injuri- 


52  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

ous,  our  springs  unfailing,  and  our  streams  more  con- 
stant and  equable ;  our  blasts  would  be  less  bitter, 
and  our  gales  less  destructive  to  fruit ;  we  should 
have  vastly  more  birds  to  delight  us  by  their  melody 
and  aid  us  in  our  not  very  successful  war  with  de- 
vouring insects ;  we  should  grow  peaches,  cherries, 
and  other  delicate  fruits,  which  the  violent  caprices 
of  our  seasons,  the  remorseless  devastations  of  our 
visible  and  invisible  insect  enemies,  have  all  but  an- 
nihilated ;  and  we  should  keep  more  cows  and  make 
more  milk  on  two-thirds  of  the  land  now  devoted  to 
grass  than  we  actually  do  from  the  whole  of  it.  And 
what  is  true  of  Westchester  is  measurably  true  of 
every  rural  county  in  the  Union. 

I  have  said  that  I  believe  in  cutting  trees  as  well 
as  in  growing  them  ;  I  have  not  said,  and  do  not 
mean  to  say,  that  I  believe  in  cutting  everything 
clean  as  you  go.  That  was  once  proper  in  "VVestches- 
ter ;  it  is  still  advisable  in  forest-covered  regions, 
where  the  sun  must  be  let  in  before  crops  can  be 
grown ;  but,  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  timber  should 
be  thinned  or  culled  out  rather  than  cut  off;  and,  for 
every  tree  taken  away,  at  least  two  should  be  planted 
or  set  out. 

We  have  pretty  well  outgrown  the  folly  of  letting 
every  apple-tree  bear  such  fruit  as  it  will ;  though  in 
the  orchard  of  my  father's  little  farm  in  Amherst, 
N".  H.,  whereon  I  was  born,  no  tree  had  c  ver  been 
grafted  when  I  bade  adieu  to  it  in  1820 ;  and  I  pre- 
sume none  has  been  to  this  day.  By  this  time,  almost 


GROWING   TIMBER — TREE-PLASTTIXG.  53 

every  farmer  realizes  that  he  can't  afford  to  grow  lit- 
tle, gnarly,  villainously  sour  or  detestably  bitter- 
sweet apples,  when,  by  duly  setting  a  graft  at  a  cost 
of  two  dimes,  he  may  make  that  identical  tree  yield 
Greenings  or  Pippins  at  least  as  bounteously.  I  pre- 
sume the  cumulative  experience  of  fifty  or  sixty  gen- 
erations of  apple-growers  has  ripened  this  conclusion. 
Why  do  they  not  infer  readily  and  generally  that 
growing  indiiferent  timber  where  the  best  and  most 
valued  would  grow  as  rapidly,  is  a  stupid,  costly 
blunder  ?  It  seems  to  me  that  whoever  has  attained 
the  conviction  that  apple-trees  should  be  grafted 
ought  to  know  that  it  is  wasteful  to  grow  Red  Oak, 
Beech,  White  Maple,  and  Alder,  where  White  Oak, 
Hickory,  Locust,  and  White  Pine,  might  be  grown 
with  equal  facility,  in  equal  luxuriance,  provided  the 
right  seeds  were  planted,  and  a  little  pains  taken  to 
keep  down,  for  a  year  or  two,  the  shoots  spontaneously 
sent  up  by  the  wrong  ones. 

North  of  the  Potomac,  and  east  of  the  Ohio,  and 
(I  presume)  in  limited  districts  elsewhere,  rocky, 
sterile  woodlands,  costing  $2  to  $50  per  acre  accord- 
ing to  location,  etc.,  are  to-day  the  cheapest  property 
to  be  bought  in  the  United  States.  Even  though 
nothing  were  done  with  them  but  keep  out  fire  and 
cattle,  and  let  the  young  trees  grow  as  they  will, 
money  can  be  more  profitably  and  safely  invested  in 
lands  covered  by  young  timber  than  in  anything  else. 
The  parent,  who  would  invest  a  few  thousands  for 
the  benefit  of  children  or  grandchildren  still  young, 


54:       ,  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

may  buy  woodlands  which  will  be  worth  twenty 
times  their  present  cost  within  the  next  twenty  years. 
But  better  even  than  this  would  it  be  to  buy  up 
rocky,  craggy,  naked  hill-sides  and  eminences  which 
have  been  pastured  to  death,  and,  shutting  out  cat- 
tle inflexibly,  scratch  these  over  with  plow,  mattock, 
hoe,  or  pick,  as  circumstances  shall  dictate,  plant 
them  thickly  with  Chestnut,  Walnut,  Hickory,  White 
Oak,  and  the  seeds  of  Locust  and  White  Pine.  I 
say  Locust,  though  not  yet  certain  that  this  tree  must 
not  be  started  in  garden  or  nursery-beds  and  trans- 
planted when  two  or  three  years  old,  so  puny  and 
feeble  is  it  at  the  outset,  and  so  likely  to  be  smother- 
ed under  leaves  or  killed  out  by  its  more  favored 
neighbors.  I  have  experiments  in  progress  not  yet 
matured,  which  may  shed  light  on  this  point  before 
I  finish  these  essays. 

Plant  thickly,  and  of  diverse  kinds,  so  as  to  cover 
the  ground  promptly  and  choke  out  weeds  and  shrubs, 
with  full  purpose  to  thin  and  prune  as  circumstances 
shall  dictate. 

Many  farmers  are  averse  to  planting  timber,  be- 
cause (they  think)  nothing  can  be  realized  therefrom 
for  the  next  twenty  or  thirty  years,  which  is  as  long 
as  they  expect  to  live.  But  this  is  a  grave  miscalcu- 
lation. Let  us  suppose  a  rocky,  hilly  pasture-lot  of 
ten  or  twenty  acres  rudely  scratched  over  as  I  have 
suggested,  and  thickly  seeded  with  hickory  nuts  and 
white  oak  acorns  only :  within  five  years,  it  will 
yield  abundantly  of  hoop-poles,  though  the  better, 


GROWING   TIMBER TREE-PULNTING.  55 

more  promising  half  be  left  to  mature,  as  they 
should  be ;  two  years  later,  another  and  larger  crop 
of  hoop-poles  may  be  cut,  still  sparing  the  best ;  and 
thenceforth  a  valuable  crop  of  timber  may  be  taken 
from  that  land ;  for,  if  cut  at  the  proper  season,  at 
least  two  thrifty  sprouts  will  start  from  every  stump  ; 
and  so  that  wood  will  yield  a  clear  income  each  year 
while  its  best  trees  are  steadily  growing  and  matur- 
ing. I  do  not  advise  restriction  to  those  two  species 
of  timber ;  but  I  insist  that  a  young  plantation  of 
forest- trees  may  and  should  yield  a  clear  income  in 
every  year  after  its  fourth. 

As  to  the  Far  West — the  Plains,  the  Parks,  and  the 
Great  Basin — there  is  more  money  to  be  made  by 
dotting  them  with  groves  of  choice  timber  than  by 
working  the  richest  veins  of  the  adjacent  mountaiffs. 
Whoever  will  promptly  start,  near  a  present  or  pros- 
pective railroad,  forty  acres  of  choice  trees — Hick- 
ory, White  Oak,  Locust,  Chestnut,  and  White  Pine 
— within  a  circuit  of  three  hundred  miles  from  Den- 
ver, on  land  which  he  has  made  or  is  making  pro- 
vision to  irrigate — may- begin  to  sell  trees  therefrom 
two  years  hence,  and  persist  in  selling  annually 
henceforth  for  a  century — at  first,  for  transplanting  ; 
very  soon,  for  a  variety  of  uses  in  addition  to  that. 

— But  this  paper  grows  too  long,  and  I  must  post- 
pone to  the  next  my  more  especial  suggestions  to 
young"  farmers  with  regard  to  tree-planting. 


IX. 

PLANTING    AND   GROWING   TREES. 

WHOEVER  has  recently  bought,  inherited,  or  other- 
wise become  the  owner  of  a  farm,  has  usually  found 
some  part  or  parts  of  it  devoted  to  wood ;  and  this, 
if  not  in  excess,  he  will  mainly  preserve,  while  he 
studies  and  plans  with  a  view  to  the  ultimate  devo- 
tion to  timber  of  just  those  portions  of  his  land  that 
are  best  adapted  to  that  use.  In  locating  that  timber, 
I  would  have  him  consider  these  suggestions  : 

I.  Land  wisely  planted  with  trees,  and  fenced  so 
far  as  need  be  to  keep  out  cattle,  costs  nothing. 
Whatever  else  you  grow  involves  labor  and  expendi- 
ture; trees  grow  of  their  own  accord.  You  may 
neglect  them  utterly — may  wander  over  the  earth 
and  be  absent  for  ten  or  twenty  years,  while  your 
fences  decay  and  your  fields  are  overcropped  to  ex- 
haustion ;  even  your  meadows  may  be  run  out  by 
late  mowing  and  close  feeding  at  both  ends  of  the 
season,  till  a  dozen  acres  will  hardly  subsist  a  span 
of  horses  and  a  cow ;  but  your  woods  need  only  to 
be  let  alone  to  insure  that  their  value  shall  have  de- 
cidedly increased  during  your  absence.  They  will 
(56) 


PLANTING  AND   GROWING   TREES.  57 

richly  reward  labor  and  care  in  thinning,  trimming, 
and  transplanting — you  may  profitably  employ  in 
them  any  time  that  you  can  spare  them — but  they 
will  do  very  well  if  simply  let  alone.  And,  unlike  any 
other  product  with  which  I  am  acquainted,  you  may 
take  crop  after  crop  of  wood  from  the  same  lot,  and 
the  soil  will  be  richer  and  more  productive  after 
the  last  than  it  was  before  the  first.  Whether  wholly 
because  their  roots  permeate  and  break  up  the  soil 
during  their  life  and  enrich  it  in  their  decay,  or  for 
diverse  reasons,  it  is  certainly  true  that  land — and 
especially  poor  land — is  enriched  by  growing  upon 
it  a  crop  of  almost  any  timber,  the  evergreens  pos- 
sibly excepted.  So,  should  you  ever  have  land  that 
you  cannot  till  to  profit,  whether  because  it  is  too 
poor,  or  because  you  have  a  sufficiency  that  is  better, 
you  should  at  once  devote  it  to  wood. 

II.  Your  springs  and  streams  will  be  rendered  more 
equable  and  enduring  by  increasing  the  area  and  the 
luxuriance  of  your  timber.     They  may  have  become 
scanty  and  capricious  under  a  policy  of  reckless, whole- 
sale destruction  of  trees  ;  they  will  be  reenforced  and 
reinvigorated    by  doubling  the  area  of  your  woods, 
while  quadrupling  the  number,  and  increasing  the 
average  size,  of  your  trees. 

III.  All   ravines   and   steep  hill-sides  should  be 
devoted  to  trees.     Every  acre  too  rocky  to  be  thor- 
oughly cleared  of  stone  and  plowed  should  be  set 
apart  for  tree-growing.     Wherever  the  soil  will  be 
gullied  or  washed  away  by  violent  rains  if  under  till- 

3* 


58  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

age,  it  should  be  excluded  from  cultivation  and 
given  up  to  trees.  Men  often  doubt  the  profit  of  heavy 
manuring;  and  well  they  may,  if  three-fourths  of 
the  fertilizers  applied  are  soaked  out  and  swept  away 
by  flooding  rains  or  sudden  thaws  and  floated  oif 
to  some  distant  sea  or  bay;  but  let  all  that  is  ap- 
plied to  the  soil  only  remain  there  till  it  is  carted 
away  in  crops,  and  it  will  hardly  be  possible  to  man- 
ure too  highly  for  profit. 

IV.  Trees,  especially  evergreens,  may  be  so  dis- 
posed as  to  modify  agreeably  the  average  temperature 
of  your  farm,  or  at  least  of  the  most  important  parts 
of  it.  When  I  bought  my  place — or  rather  the  first 
installment  of  it — the  best  spot  I  could  select  for  a  gar- 
den lay  at  the  foot  of  a  hill  which  half  surrounded  it 
on  the  south  and  east,  leaving  it  exposed  to  the  full 
sweep  of  north  and  north-west  winds  ;  so  that, 
though  the  soil  was  gravelly  and  warm,  my  garden 
was  likely  to  be  cold  and  backward.  To  remedy 
this,  I  planted  four  rows  of  evergreens  (Balsam  Fir, 
Pine,  Red  Cedar,  and  Hemlock),  along  a  low  ridge 
bounding  it  on  the  north,  following  an  inward  curve 
of  the  ridge  at  its  west  end ;  and  those  evergreens 
have  in  sixteen  years  grown  into  very  considerable 
trees,  forming  a  shady,  cleanly,  inviting  bower,  or 
sylvan  retreat,  daintily  carpeted  with  the  fallen 
leaves  of  the  overhanging  firs.  I  judge  that  the 
average  temperature  of  the  soil  for  some  yards 
southward  of  this  wind-break  is  at  least  five  degrees 
higher,  throughout  the  growing  season,  than  it  for- 


PLANTING   AND   GROWING   TREES.  59 

merly  was  or  would  now  be  if  these  evergreens  were 
swept  away ;  while  the  aspect  of  the  place  is  agreea- 
bly diversified,  and  even  beautified,  by  their  appear- 
ance. I  believe  it  would  sell  for  some  hundreds  of 
dollars  more  with  than  without  that  thrifty,  growing 
clump  of  evergreens. 

Y.  I  have  already  urged,  though  not  strongly 
enough,  that  crops,  as  well  as  springs,  will  be  im- 
proved by  keeping  the  crests  of  ridges  thickly 
wooded,  thus  depositing  moisture  in  Winter  and 
Spring,  to  be  slowly  yielded  to  the  adjacent  slopes 
during  the  heat  and  drouth  of  Summer.  I  firmly 
believe  that  the  slopes  of  a  hill  whose  crest  is  heavily 
wooded  will  yield  larger  average  crops  than  slope 
and  crest  together  would  do  if  both  were  bare  of 
trees. 

YI.  The  banks  of  considerable  streams,  ponds,  etc., 
may  often  be  so  planted  with  trees  that  these  will 
shade  more  water  than  land,  to  the  comfort  and 
satisfaction  of  the  fish,  and  the  protection  of  those 
banks  from  abrasion  by  floods  and  rapid  currents. 
Sycamore,  Elm,  and  Willow,  do  well  here ;  if  choice 
Grape-Yines  are  set  beside  and  allowed  to  run  over 
some  of  them,  the  effect  is  good,  and  the  grapes  ac- 
ceptable to  man  and  bird. 

YII.  Never  forget  that  a  good  tree  grows  as  thrift- 
ily and  surely  as  a  poor  one.  Many  a  farmer  has  to- 
day ten  to  forty  acres  of  indifferent  cord- wood  where 
he  might,  at  a  very  slight  cost,  have  had  instead 
an  equal  quantity  of  choice  timber,  worth  ten  times 


60  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

as  much.  Hickory,  Chestnut,  and  Walnut,  while 
they  yield  nuts  that  can  be  eaten  or  sold,  are  worth 
far  more  as  timber  than  an  equal  bulk  of  -Beech, 
Birch,  Hemlock,  or  Red  Oak.  Chestnut  has  more 
than  doubled  in  value  within  the  last  few  years, 
mainly  because  it  has  been  found  excellent  for  the 
inside  wood-work  of  dwellings.  Locust  also  seems 
to  be  increasing  in  value.  Ten  acres  of  large,  thrifty 
Locust  near  this  City  would  now  buy  a  pretty  good 
farm ;  as  I  presume  it  would,  if  located  near  any  of 
our  great  cities. 

YIII.  Where  several  good  varieties  of  Timber  are 
grown  together,  some  insect  or  atmospheric  trouble 
may  blast  one  of  them,  yet  leave  the  residue  alive 
and  hearty.  And,  if  all  continue  thrifty,  some  may 
be  cut  out  and  sold,  leaving  others  more  room  to 
grow  and  rapidly  attain  a  vigorous  maturity. 

IX.  Wherever  timber  has  become  scarce  and  valua- 
ble, a  wood-lot  should  be  thinned   out,  nevermore 
cleared  off,  unless  it  is  to  be  devoted  to  a  different  use. 
It  seems  to  me  that  destroying  a  forest  because  we 
want  timber  is  like  smothering  a  hive  of  bees  because 
we  want  honey. 

X.  Timber  should  be  cut  with  intelligent  reference 
to  the  future.     Locust  and  other  valuable  trees  that 
it  is  desirable   should    throw    up    shoots  from  the 
stump,  and  rapidly  reproduce  their  kind,  should  be 
cut  in  March  or  April ;  while  trees  that  you  want 
to  exterminate  should  be  cut  in  August,  so  that  they 
may  not  sprout.     There  may  be  exceptions  to  this 


PLANTING  AND  GEOWING  TREES.         61 

rule ;  but  I  do  not  happen  to  recollect  any.  Ever- 
greens do  not  sprout ;  and  I  think  these  should  be 
cut  in  Winter — at  all  events,  not  in  Spring,  when  full 
of  sap  and  thus  prone  to  rapid  decay. 

XI.  Your  plantation  will  furnish  pleasant  and  pro- 
fitable employment  at  almost  any  season.     I  doubt 
that  any  one  in  this  country  has  ever  yet  bestowed  so 
much  labor  and   care  on  a  young  forest  as  it  will 
amply  reward.     Sow  your  seeds  thickly;    begin  to 
thin  the  young  trees  when  they  are  a  foot  high,  and 
to  trim  them  so  soon  as  they  are  three  feet,  and  you 
may  have  thousands  thriving  on  a  fertile  acre,  and 
pushing  their  growth  upward  with  a  rapidity  and  to 
an  altitude  outrunning  all  preconception. 

XII.  Springs  and  streams  will  soon  appear  where 
none    have  appeared   and  endured  for  generations, 
when  we  shall  have  reclothed  the  nakedness  of  the 
Plains  with  adequate  forests.   Rains  will  become  mod- 
erately frequent  where  they  are  now  rare,  and  con- 
fined to  the  season  when  they  are  of  least  use  to  the 
husbandman. 

I  may  have  more  to  say  of  trees  by-and-by,  but 
rest  here  for  the  present.  The  importance  of  the 
topic  can  hardly  be  overrated. 


DRAINING — MY    OWN. 

MY  farm  is  in  the  township  of  Newcastle,  "West- 
chester  County,  N.  Y.,  35  miles  from  our  City  Hall, 
and  a  little  eastward  of  the  hamlet  known  as  Chap- 
paqua,  called  into  existence  by  a  station  on  the  Har- 
lem Railroad.  It  embraces  the  south-easterly  half 
of  the  marsh  which  the  railroad  here  traverses  from 
south  to  north — my  part  measuring  some  fifteen 
acres,  with  five  acres  more  of  slightly  elevated  dry 
land  between  it  and  the  foot  of  the  rather  rugged 
hill  which  rises  thence  on  the  east  and  on  the  south, 
and  of  which  I  now  own  some  fifty  acres,  lying 
wholly  eastward  of  my  low  land,  and  in  good  part 
covered  with  forest.  Of  this,  I  bought  more  than 
half  in  1853,  and  the  residue  in  bits  from  time  to 
time  as  I  could  afford  it.  The  average  cost  was  be- 
tween $130  and  $140  per  acre :  one  small  and  poor 
old  cottage  being  the  only  building  I  found  on  the 
tract,  which  consisted  of  the  ragged  edges  of  two 
adjacent  farms,  between  the  western  portions  of  which 
mine  is  now  interposed,  while  they  still  adjoin  each 
other  beyond  the  north  and  south  roa,d,  half  a  mile 
(62) 


DRAINING — MY   OWN,  63 

from  the  railroad,  on  which  their  buildings  are  located 
and  which  forms  my  eastern  boundary.  My  stony, 
gravelly  upland  mainly  slopes  to  the  west ;  but  two 
acres  on  my  east  line  incline  toward  the  road  which 
bounds  me  in  that  direction,  while  two  more  on  my 
south-east  corner  descend  to  the  little  brook  which, 
entering  at  that  corner,  keeps  irregularly  near  my 
south  line,  until  it  emerges,  swelled  by  a  smaller  run- 
nel that  enters  my  lowland  from  the  north  and  tra- 
verses it  to  meet  and  pass  off  with  the  larger  brook- 
let aforesaid.  I  have  done  some  draining,  to  no  great 
purpose,  on  the  more  level  portions  of  my  upland  ; 
but  my  lowland  has  challenged  my  best  efforts  in 
this  line,  and  I  shall  here  explain  them,  for  the  en- 
couragement and  possible  guidance  of  novices  in 
draining.  Let  me  speak  first  of 

My  Difficulties. — This  marsh  or  bog  consisted, 
when  I  first  grappled  with  it,  of  some  thirty  acres, 
whereof  I  then  owned  less  than  a  third.  To  drain  it 
to  advantage,  one  person  should  own  it  all,  or  the 
different  owners  should  cooperate ;  but  I  had  to  go 
it  alone,  with  no  other  aid  than  a  freely  accorded 
privilege  of  .straightening  as  well  as  deepening  the 
brook  which  wound  its  way  through  the  dryer  mea- 
dow just  below  me,  forming  here  the  boundary  of 
two  adjacent  farms.  I  spent  $100  on  this  job, 
which  is  still  imperfect ;  but  the  first  decided  fall  in 
the  stream  occurs  nearly  a  mile  below  me ;  and  you 
tire  easily  of  doing  at  your  own  cost  work  which 
benefits  several  others  as  much  as  yourself.  My 


64  WHAT   I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

drainage  will  never  be  perfect  till  this  brook,  with 
that  far  larger  one  in  which  it  is  merged  sixty  rods 
below  me,  shall  have  been  sunk  three  or  four  feet,  at 
a  further  expense  of  at  least  $500. 

This  bog  or  swamp,  when  I  first  bought  into  it, 
was  mainly  dedicated  to  the  use  of  frogs,  muskrats 
and  snapping-turtles.  A  few  small  water-elms  and 
soft  maples  grew  upon  it,  with  swamp  alder  partly 
fringing  the  western  base  of  the  hill  east  of  it,  where 
the  rocks  which  had,  through  thousands  of  years, 
rolled  from  the  hill,  thickly  covered  the  surface,  with 
springs  bubbling  up  around  and  among  them.  De- 
caying stumps  and  imbedded  fragments  of  trees  ar- 
gued that  timber  formerly  covered  this  marsh  as 
well  as  the  encircling  hills.  A  tall,  dense  growth  of 
blackberry  briers,  thoroughwort,  and  all  manner  of 
marsh-weeds  and  grasses,  covered  the  center  of  the 
swamp  each  Summer ;  but  my  original  portion  of  it, 
being  too  wet  for  these,  was  mainly  addicted  to 
hassocks  or  tussocks  of  wiry,  worthless  grass;  their 
matted  roots  rising  in  hard  bunches  a  few  inches 
above  the  soft,  bare,  encircling  mud.  The  bog 
ranged  in  depth  from  a  few  inches  to  five  or  six 
feet,  and  was  composed  of  black,  peaty,  vegetable 
mold,  diversified  by  occasional  streaks  of  clay  or 
sand,  all  resting  on  a  substratum  of  hard,  coarse 
gravel,  out  of  which  two  or  three  springs  bubbled 
up,  in  addition  to  the  half  a  dozen  which  poured  in 
from  the  east,  and  a  tiny  rivulet  which  (except  in  a 
very  dry,  hot  time)  added  the  tribute  of  three  or 


DRAINING — MY    OWN.  65 

four  more,  which  sprang  from  the  base  of  a  higher 
shelf  of  the  hill  near  the  middle  of  what  is  now  my 
farm.  Add  to  these  that  the  brook  which  brawled 
and  foamed  down  my  hill-side  near  my  south  line  as 
aforesaid,  had  brought  along  an  immensity  of  pebbles 
and  gravel  of  which  it  had  mainly  formed  my  five 
acres  of  dryer  lowland,  had  thus  built  up  a  pretty 
swale,  whereon  it  had  the  bad  habit  of  filling  up  one 
channel,  and  then  cutting  another,  more  devious  and 
eccentric,  if  possible,  than  any  of  its  predecessors — 
and  you  have  some  idea  of  the  obstacles  I  encoun- 
tered and  resolved  to  overcome.  One  of  my  first 
substantial  improvements  was  the  cutting  of  a 
straight  channel  for  this  current  and,  by  walling  it 
\\jith  large  stones,  compelling  the  brook  to  respect 
necessary  limitations.  It  was  not  my  fault  that  some 
of  those  stones  were  set  nearly  upright,  so  as  to  veneer 
the  brook  rather  than  thoroughly  constrain  it :  hence, 
some  of  the  stones,  undermined  by  strong  currents, 
wrere  pitched,  for  ward  into  the  brook  by  high  Spring- 
freshets,  so  as  to  require  resetting  more  carefully. 
This  was  a  mistake,  but  not  one  of 

My  Blunders. — These,  the  natural  results  of  inex- 
perience and  haste,  were  very  grave.  Not  only  had 
I  had  no  real  experience  in  draining  when  I  began, 
but  I  could  hire  no  foreman  who  knew  much  more  of 
it  than  I  did.  I  ought  to  have  begun  by  securing  an 
ample  and  sure  fall  where  the  water  left  my  land, 
and  next  cut  down  the  brooklet  or  open  ditch  into 
which  I  intended  to  drain  to  the  lowest  practicable 


66  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

point — so  low,  at  least,  that  no  drain  running  into  it 
should  ever  be  troubled  with  back-water.  Nothing 
can  be  more  useless  than  a  drain  in  which  water 
stagnates,  choking  it  with  mud.  Then  I  should  have 
bought  hundreds  of  Hemlock  or  other  cheap  boards, 
slit  them  to  a  width  of  four  or  five  inches,  and,  hav- 
ing opened  the  needed  drains,  laid  these  in  the  bot- 
tom and  the  tile  thereupon,  taking  care  to  break  joint, 
by  covering  the  meeting  ends  of  two  boards  with  the 
middle  of  a  tile.  Laying  tile  in  the  soft  mud  of  a 
bog,  with  nothing  beneath  to  prevent  their  sinking, 
is  simply  throwing  away  labor  and  money.  I  cannot 
wonder  that  tile-draining  seems  to  many  a  humbug, 
seeing  that  so  many  tile  are  laid  so  that  they  can 
never  do  any  good. 

Having,  by  successive  purchases,  become  owner  of 
fully  half  of  this  swamp,  and  by  repeated  blunders 
discovered  that  making  stone  drains  in  a  bog,  while 
it  is  a  capital  mode  of  getting  rid  of  the  stone,  is  no 
way  at  all  to  dry  the  soil,  I  closed  my  series  of  ex- 
periments two  years  since  by  carefully  relaying  my 
generally  useless  tile  on  good  strips  of  board,  sinking 
them  just  as  deep  as  I  could  persuade  the  water  to 
run  off  freely,  and,  instead  of  allowing  them  to  dis- 
charge into  a  brooklet  or  open  ditch,  connecting  each 
with  a  covered  main  of  four  to  six-inch  tile ;  these 
mains  discharging  into  the  running  brook  which 
drains  all  my  farm  and  three  or  four  of  those  above 
it  just  where  it  runs  swiftly  off  from  my  land.  If  a 
thaw  or  heavy  rain  swells  the  brook  (as  it  sometimes 


DRAINING — MY   OWN.  67 

will)  so  that  it  rises  above  my  outlet  aforesaid,  the 
strong  current  formed  by  the  concentration  of  the 
clear  contents  of  so  many  drains  will  not  allow  the 
muddy  water  of  the  brook  to  back  into  it  so  many 
as  three  feet  at  most ;  and  any  mud  or  sediment  that 
may  be  deposited  there  will  be  swept  out  clean  when- 
ever the  brook  shall  have  fallen  to  the  drainage  level. 
For  this  and  similar  excellent  devices,  I  am  indebted 
to  the  capital  engineering  and  thorough  execution  of 
Messrs.  Chickering  &  Gall,  whose  work  on  my  place 
has  seldom  required  mending,  and  never  called  for 
reconstruction. 

My  Success. — I  judge  that  there  are  not  many  tracts 
more  difficult  to  drain  than  mine  was,  considering  all 
the  circumstances,  except  those  which  are  frequently 
flowed  by  tides  or  the  waters  of  some  lake  or  river. 
Had  I  owned  the  entire  swamp,  or  had  there  been  a 
fall  in  the  brook  just  below  me,  had  I  had  any  prior 
experience  in  draining,  or  had  others  equally  inter- 
ested cooperated  in  the  good  work,  my  task  would 
have  been  comparatively  light.  As  it  was,  I  made 
mistakes  which  increased  the  cost  and  postponed  the 
success  of  my  efforts  ;  but  this  is  at  length  complete. 
I  had  seven  acres  of  Indian  Corn,  one  of  Corn  Fod- 
der, two  of  Oats,  and  seven  or  eight  acres  of  Grass, 
on  my  lowland  in  1869 ;  and,  though  the  Spring 
months  were  quite  rainy,  and  the  latter  part .  of 
Summer  rather  diy,  my  crops  were  all  good.  I  did 
not  see  better  in  Westchester  County ;  and  I  shall  be 
quite  content  with  as  good  hereafter.  Of  my  seven 


68  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

hundred  bushels  of  Corn  (ears,)  I  judge  that  two- 
thirds  would  be  accounted  fit  for  seed  anywhere ; 
my  Grass  was  cut  twice,  and  yielded  one  large  crop 
and  another  heavier  than  the  average  first  crop 
throughout  our  State.  My  drainage  will  require 
some  care  henceforth ;  but  the  fifteen  acres  I  have 
reclaimed  from  utter  uselessness  and  obstructions  are 
decidedly  the  best  part  of  my  farm.  Uplands  may 
be  exhausted ;  these  never  can  be. 

The  experience  of  another  season  (1870)  of  pro- 
tracted drouth  has  fully  justified  my  most  sanguine  ex- 
pectations. I  had  this  year  four  acres  of  Corn,  and 
as  many  of  Oats,  on  my  swamp,  with  the  residue  in 
Grass ;  and  they  were  all  good.  I  estimate  my 
first  Hay-crop  at  over  two  and  a  half  tuns  per  acre, 
while  the  rowen  or  aftermath  barely  exceeded  half  a 
tun  per  acre,  because  of  the  severity  of  the  drouth, 
which  began  in  July  and  lasted  till  October.  My 
Oats  were  good,  but  not  remarkably  so ;  and  I  had 
810  bushels  of  ears  of  sound,  ripe  Corn  from  four 
acres  of  drained  swamp  and  two  and  a  half  of  up- 
land. I  estimate  my  iipland  Corn  at  seventy  (shelled) 
bushels,  and  my  lowland  at  fifty-five  (shelled)  bushels 
per  acre.  Others,  doubtless,  had  more,  despite  the 
unpropitious  season  ;  but  my  crop  was  a  fair  one,  and 
I  am  content  with  it.  My  upland  Corn  was  heavily 
manured ;  my  lowland  but  moderately.  There  are 
many  to  tell  you  how  much  I  lose  by  my  farming; 
I  only  say  that,  as  yet,  no  one  else  has  lost  a  farthing 
by  it,  and  I  do  not  complain. 


XL 


DRAINING   GENERALLY. 

HAVING  narrated  my  own  experience  in  draining 
with  entire  unreserve,  I  here  submit  the  general 
conclusions  to  which  it  has  led  me  : 

I.  While  I   doubt  that  there  is   any  land  above 
water  that  would  not  be  improved  by  a  good  system 
of  underdrains,  I  am  sure  that  there  is  a  great  deal 
that    could   not   at  present    be   drained    to    profit. 
Forests,  hill-side  pastures,  and  most  dry  gravelly  or 
sandy  tracts,  I  place  in  this  category.     Perhaps  one- 
third  of  New-England,  half  of  the  Middle  States, 
and  three-fourths  of  the  Mississippi  Yalley,  may  ulti- 
mately be  drained  with -profit. 

II.  All  swamp  lands  without  exception,  nearly  all 
clay  soils,  and  a  majority  of  the  flat  or  gently  roll- 
ing lands  of  this  country,  must  eventually  be  drained, 
if  they  are  to  be  tilled  with  the  best  results.   I  doubt 
that  there  is  a  garden  on  earth  that  would  not  be 
(unless  it  already  had  been)  improved  by  thorough 
underdraining. 

III.  The  uses  of  underdrains  are  many  and  di- 
verse.    To  carry  off  surplus  water,  though  the  most 

(69) 


70  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

obvious,  stands  by  no  means  alone.  1.  Underdrained 
land  may  be  plowed  and  sowed  considerably  earlier 
in  Spring  than  undrained  soil  of  like  quality.  2. 
Drained  fields  lose  far  less  than  others  of  their 
fertility  by  washing.  3.  They  are  not  so  liable  to  be 
gullied  by  sudden  thaws  or  flooding  rains.  4.  Where 
a  field  has  been  deeply  subsoiled,  I  am  confident  that 
it  Will  remain  mellow  and  permeable  by  roots  longer 
than  if  undrained.  5.  Less  water  being  evaporated 
from  drained  than  from  undrained  land,  the  soil  will 
be  warmer  throughout  the  growing  season ;  hence, 
the  crop  will  be  heavier,  arid  will  mature  earlier.  6. 
Being  more  porous  and  less  compact,  I  think  the  soil 
of  a  drained  field  retains  more  moisture  in  a  season  of 
drouth,  and  its  growing  plants  suffer  less  therefrom, 
than  if  it  were  undrained.  In  short,  I  thoroughly 
believe  in  underdraining. 

IV.  Yet  I  advise  no  man  to  run  into  debt  for  drain- 
ing, as  I  can  imagine  a  mortgage  on  a  farm  so  heavy 
and  pressing  as  to  be  even  a  greater  nuisance  than 
stagnant  water  in  its  soil.  Labor  and  tile  are  dear 
with  us  ;  I  do  not  expect  that  either  will  ever  be  so 
cheap  here  as  in  England  or  Belgium.  What  I 
would  have  each  farmer  in  moderate  circumstances 
do  is  to  drain  his  wettest  field  next  Fall — that  is,  after 
finishing  his  haying  and  before  cutting  up  his  corn — 
taking  care  to  secure  abundant  fall  to  carry  off  the 
water  in  time  of  flood,  and  doing  his  work  tho- 
roughly. Having  done  this,  let  him  subsoil  deeply, 
fertilize  amply,  till  carefully,  and  watch  the  result. 


DRAINING   GENERALLY.  71 

I  think  it  will  soon  satisfy  him  that  such  draining 
pays. 

Y.  I  do  not  insist  on  tile  as  making  the  only  good 
drain ;  but  I  have  had  no  success  with  any  other. 
The  use  of  stone,  in  my  opinion,  is  only  justified 
where  the  field  to  be  drained  abounds  in  them  and 
no  other  use  can  be  made  of  them.  To  make  a  good 
drain  with  ordinary  boulders  or  cobble-stones  re- 
quires twice  the  excavation  and  involves  twice  the 
labor  necessarily  expended  on  tile-draining ;  and  it  is 
neither  so  effective  nor  so  durable.  Earth  will  be 
carried  by  water  into  a  stone  drain ;  rats  and  other 
vermin  will  burrow  in  it  and  dig  (or  enlarge)  holes 
thence  to  the  surface ;  in  short,  it  is  not  the  thing. 
Better  drain  with  stone  where  they  are  a  nuisance 
than  not  at  all ;  but  I  predict  that  you  will  dig  them 
up  after  giving  them  a  fair  trial  and  replace  them 
with  tile.  In  a  wooded  country,  where  tile  were 
scarce  and  dear,  I  should  try  draining  with  slabs  or 
cheap  boards  dressed  to  a  uniform  width  of  six  or 
eight  inches,  and  laid  in  a  ditch  dug  with  banks  in- 
clined or  sloped  to  the  bottom,  so  as  to  form  a  sort 
of  Y ;  the  lower  edge  of  the  two  side-slabs  coming 
together  at  the  bottom,  and  a  third  being  laid  widely 
across  their  upper  edges,  so  as  to  form  a  perfect  cap 
or  cover.  In  firm,  hard  soil,  this  would  prove  an 
efficient  drain,  and,  if  well  made,  would  last  twenty 
years.  Uniformity  of  temperature  and  of  moisture 
would  keep  the  slabs  tolerably  sound  for  at  least  so 
long;  and,  if  the  top  of  this  drain  were  two  feet 


72  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

below  the  surface,  no  plowing  or  trampling  over  it 
would  harm  it. 

YI.  As  to  draining  by  what  is  called  a  Mole  Plow, 
which  simply  makes  a  waterway  through  the  subsoil 
at  a  depth  of  three  feet  or  thereabout,  I  have  no 
acquaintance  with  it  but  by  hearsay.  It  seems  to 
me  morally  impossible  that  drains  so  made  should 
not  be  lower  at  some  points  than  at  others,  so  as  to 
retain  their  fill  of  water  instead  of  carrying  it  rap- 
idly off ;  and  I  am  sure  that  plowing,  or  even  carting 
heavy  loads  over  them,  must  gradually  choke  and 
destroy  them.  Yet  this  kind  of  draining  is  compara- 
tively so  cheap,  and  may,  with  a  strong  team,  be  ef- 
fected so  rapidly,  that  I  can  account  for  its  popular- 
ity, especially  in  prairie  regions.  Where  the  subsoil 
is  rocky,  it  is  impracticable ;  where  it  is  hard-pan,  it 
must  be  very  difficult ;  where  it  is  loose  sand,  it  can- 
not endure ;  but  in  clays  or  heavy  loams,  it  may,  for 
a  few  years,  render  excellent  service.  I  wish  the 
heavy  clays  of  Yermont,  more  especially  of  the 
Champlain  basin,  were  well  furrowed  or  pierced  by 
even  such  drains ;  for  I  am  confident  that  they 
would  temporarily  improve  both  soil  and  crop  ;  and, 
if  they  soon  gave  out,  they  would  probably  be  re- 
placed by  others  more  durable. 

— I  shall  not  attempt  to  give  instructions  in  drain- 
making  ;  but  I  urge  every  novice  in  the  art  to  pro- 
cure "Waring's  or  some  other  work  on  the  subject  and 
study  it  carefully  :  then,  if  he  can  obtain  at  a  fair 
price  the  services  of  an  experienced  drainer,  hire  him 


DRAINING   GENERALLY.  73 

to  supervise  the  work.  One  point  only  do  I  insist  on 
— that  is,  draining  into  a  main  rather  than  an  open 
ditch  or  brook;  for  it  is  difficult  in  this  or  any- 
harsher  climate  to  prevent  the  crumbling  of  your 
outlet  tile  by  frost.  Below  the  Potomac  or  the  Ar- 
kansas, this  may  not  be  apprehended  ;  and  there  it 
may  be  best  to  have  your  drains  separately  discharge 
from  a  roadside  bank  or  into  an  open  ditch,  as  they 
will  thus  inhale  more  air,  and  so  help  (in  Summer) 
to  warm  and  moisten  the  soil  above  them  ;  but  in  our 
climate  I  believe  it  better  to  let  your  drains  discharge 
into  a  covered  main  or  mains  as  aforesaid,  than  into 
an  open  ditch  or  brook. 

Tile  and  labor  are  dear  with  us  ;  I  presume  labor 
will  remain  so.  But,  in  our  old  States,  there  are 
often  laborers  lacking  employment  in  November  and 
the  Winter  months  ;  and  it  is  the  wisest  and  truest 
charity  to  proffer  them  pay  for  work.  Some  will  re- 
ject it  unless  the  price  be  exorbitant ;  but  there  are 
scores  of  the  deserving  poor  in  almost  every  rural 
county,  who  would  rather  earn  a  dollar  per  day  than 
hang  around  the  grog-shops  waiting  for  Spring.  Get 
your  tiles  when  you  can,  or  do  not  get  them  at  all,  but 
let  it  be  widely  known  that  you  have  work  for  those 
who  will  do  it  for  the  wages  you  can  afford,  and  you 
will  soon  have  somebody  to  earn  your  money.  Hav- 
ing staked  out  your  drains,  set  these  to  work  at  dig- 
ging them,  even  though  you  should  not  be  able  to 
tile  them  for  a  year.  Cut  your  outlet  deep,  and  your 
land  will  profit  by  a  year  of  open  drains. 


XII. 

IRRIGATION  —  MEANS   AND   ENDS. 

WHILE  few  can  have  failed  to  realize  the  important 
part  played  by  "Water  in  the  economy  of  vegetation, 
I  judge  that  the  question — "  How  can  I  secure  to  my 
growing  plants  a  sufficiency  of  moisture  at  all 
times?" — has  not  always  presented  itself  to  the  farm- 
er's mind  as  demanding  of  him  a  practical  solution. 
To  rid  his  soil  and  keep  it  free  of  superfluous,  but 
especially  of  stagnant  water,  he  may  or  may  not 
accept  as  a  necessity;  but  that,  having  provided  for 
draining  away  whatever  is  excessive,  he  should  turn 
a  short  corner  and  begin  at  once  to  provide  that 
water  shall  be  supplied  to  his  fields  and  plants  when- 
ever they  may  need  it,  he  is  often  slow  to  apprehend. 
Yet  this  provision  is  but  the  counterpart  and  com- 
plement of  the  other. 

I  had  sped  across  Europe  to  Venice,  and  noted  with 
interest  the  admirable,  effective  irrigation  of  the 
great  plain  of  Lombardy,  before  I  could  call  any  land 
my  own.  I  saw  there  a  region  perhaps  thirty  miles 
wide  by  one  hundred  and  fifty  along  the  east  bank 
of  the  Po,  rising  very  gently  thence  to  the  foot  of  the 

(74) 


IRRIGATION MEANS    AND    ENDS.  75  . 

Austrian  Alps,  which  Providence  seems  to  have 
specially  adapted  to  be  improved  by  irrigation.  The 
torrents  of  melted  snow  which  in  Spring  leap  and 
foam  adown  the  southern  face  of  the  Alps,  bringing 
with  them  the  finer  particles  of  soil,  are  suddenly 
arrested  and  form  lakes  (Garda,  Maggiore,  Como, 
etc.)  just  as  they  emerge  upon  the  plain.  These 
lakes,  slowly  rising,  often  overflow  their  banks,  with 
those  of  the  small  rivers  that  bear  their  waters  west- 
ward to  the  Po ;  and  this  overflow  was  a  natural 
source  of  abiding  fertility.  To  dam  these  outlets, 
and  thus  control  their  currents,  was  a  very  simple 
and  obvious  device  of  long  ago,  and  was  probably 
begun  by  a  very  few  individuals  (if  by  more  than 
one),  whose  success  incited  emulation,  until  the  pres- 
ent extensive  and  costly  system  of  irrigating  dams 
and  canals  was  gradually  developed.  "When  I  trav- 
ersed Lombardy  in  July,  1851,  the  beds  of  streams 
naturally  as  large  as  the  Pemigewasset,  Battenkill, 
Canada  Creek,  -or  Humboldt,  were  utterly  dry ;  the 
water  which  would  naturally  have  flowed  therein 
being  wholly  transferred  to  an  irrigating  canal  (or  to 
canals)  often  two  or  three  miles  distant.  The  reser- 
voirs thus  created  were  filled  in  Spring,  when  the 
streams  were  fullest  and  their  water  richest,  and 
gradually  drawn  upon  throughout  the  later  growing 
season  to  cover  the  carefully  leveled  and  graded  fields 
on  either  side  to  the  depth  of  an  inch  or  two  at  a 
time.  If  any  failed  to  be  soon  absorbed  by  the  soil, 
it  was  drawn  off  as  here  superfluous,  and  added  to 


T6  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAKMLSG. 

the  current  employed  to  moisten  and  fertilize  the 
field  next  below  it ;  and  so  field  after  field  was  re- 
freshed and  enriched,  to  the  husbandman's  satisfaction 
and  profit.  It  may  be  that  the  rich  glades  of  English 
Lancashire  bear  heavier  average  crops;  but  those  of 
Lombardy  are  rarely  excelled  on  the  globe. 

Why  should  not  our  Atlantic  slope  have  its  Lom- 
bardy? Utah,  Nevada,  and  California,  exhibit  raw, 
crude  suggestions  of  such  a  system ;  but  why  should 
the  irrigation  of  the  New  World  be  confined  to 
regions  where  it  is  indispensable,  when  that  of  the 
Old  is  not?  I  know  no  good  reason  whatever,  for 
leaving  an  American  field  unirrigated  where  water 
to  flow  it  at  will  can  be  had  at  a  moderate  cost. 

When  I  first  bought  laud  (in  1853)  I  fully  purpos- 
ed to  provide  for  irrigating  my  nearly  level  acres  at 
will,  and  I  constructed  two  dams  across  my  upland 
stream  with  that  view ;  but  they  were  so  badly 
planned  that  they  went  off  in  the  flood  caused  by  a 
tremendous  rain  the  next  Spring;  and,  though  I 
rebuilt  one  of  them,  I  submitted  to  a  miscalculation 
which  provided  for  taking  the  water,  by  means  of  a 
syphon,  out  of  the  pond  at  the  top  and  over  the  bank 
that  rose  fifteen  or  twenty  feet  above  the  surface  of 
the  water.  Of  course,  air  would  work  into  the  pipe 
after  it  had  carried  a  stream  unexceptionably  for  two 
or  three  days,  and  then  the  water  would  ran  no  longer. 
Had  I  taken  it  from  the  bottom  of  the  pond  through 
my  dam,  it  wonld  have  run  forever,  (or  so  long  as 
there  was  water  covering  its  inlet  in  the  pond ;)  but 


IRRIGATION — MEANS   AND   ENDS.  Y7 

bad  engineering  flung  me ;  and  I  have  never  since 
had  the  heart  (or  the  means)  to  revise  and  correct  its 
errors. 

My  next  attempt  was  on  a  much  humbler  scale, 
and  I  engineered  it  myself.  Toward  the  north  end 
of  my  farm,  the  hill-side  which  rises  east  of  my  low- 
land is  broken  by  a  swale  or  terrace,  which  gives  me 
three  or  four  acres  of  tolerably  level  upland,  along 
the  upper  edge  of  which  five  or  six  springs,  which 
never  wholly  fail,  burst  from  the  rocks  above  and 
unite  to  form  a  petty  runnel,  which  dries  up  in  very 
hot  or  dry  weather,  but  which  usually  preserved  a 
tiny  stream  to  be  lost  in  the  swamp  below.  North  of 
the  gully  cat  down  the  lower  hill-side  by  this  stream- 
let, the  hill-side  of  some  three  acres  is  quite  steep, 
still  partially  wooded,  and  wholly  devoted  to  pastur- 
age. Making  a  petty  dam  across  this  runnel  at  the 
top  of  the  lower  acclivity,  I  turned  the  stream  aside, 
so  that  it  should  henceforth  run  along  the  crest  of 
this  lower  hill,  falling  off  gradually  so  as  to  secure  a 
free  current,  and  losing  its  contents  at  intervals 
through  variable  depressions  in  its  lower  bank.  Dam 
and  artificial  water-course  together  cost  me  $90,  which 
was  about  twice  what  it  should  have  been.  That 
rude  and  petty  contrivance  has  now  been  ten  years 
in  operation,  and  may  have  cost  $5  per  annum  for 
oversight  and  repairs.  Its  effect  has  beeqgto  double 
the  grass  grown  on  the  two  acres  it  constantly  irri- 
gates, for  which  I  paid  $280,  or  more  than  thrice  the 
cost  of  my  irrigation.  But  more :  my  hill-side,  while 


78  WHAT   I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

it  was  well  grassed  in  Spring,  always  gave  out  direct- 
ly after  the  first  dry,  or  hot  week ;  so  that,  when  I 
most  needed  feed,  it  afforded  none  ;  its  herbage  being 
parched  up  and  dead,  and  thus  remaining  till  refresh- 
ed by  generous  rains.  I  judge,  therefore,  that  my 
irrigation  has  more  than  doubled  the  product  of  those 
two  acres,  and  that  these  are  likely  to  lose  nothing  in 
yield  or  value  so  long  as  that  petty  irrigating  ditch 
shall  be  maintained. 

I  know  this  is  small  business.  But  suppose  each 
of  the  hundred  thousand  New-England  farms,  where- 
of five  to  ten  acres  might  be  thus  irrigated  at  a  cost 
not  exceeding  $100  per  farm,  had  been  similarly 
prepared  to  flow  those  acres  last  Spring  and  early 
Summer,  with  an  average  increase  therefrom  of 
barely  one  tun  of  Hay  (or  its  equivalent  in  pasturage) 
per  acre.  The  500,000  tuns  of  Hay  thus  realized 
would  have  saved  200,000  head  of  cattle  from  being 
sent  to  the  butcher  while  too  thin  for  good  beef, 
while  every  one  of  them  was  required  for  further 
use,  and  will  have  to  be  replaced  at  a  heavy  cost. 
Shall  not  these  things  be  considered  ?  Shall  not  all 
who  can  do  so  at  moderate  cost  resolve  to  test  on 
their  own  farms  the  advantages  and  benefits  that 
may  be  secured  by  Irrigation  ? 


xin. 

THE   POSSIBILITIES   OF   IRRIGATION. 

I  HAVE  given  an  account  of  my  poor,  little  experi- 
ment in  Irrigation,  because  it  is  one  which  almost 
every  farmer  can  imitate  and  improve  upon,  however 
narrow  his  domain  and  slender  his  fortune.  I  pre- 
sume there  are  Half  a  Million  homesteads  in  the 
United  States  which  have  natural  facilities  for  Irri- 
gation at  least  equal  to  mine ;  many  of  them  far 
greater.  Along  either  slope  of  the  AUeghenies, 
throughout  a  district  at  least  a  thousand  miles  long 
by  three  hundred  wide,  nearly  every  farm  might  be 
at  least  partially  irrigated  by  means  of  a  dam  costing 
from  twenty-five  to  one  hundred  dollars ;  so  might 
at  least  half  the  farms  in  New-England  and  our  own 
State.  On  the  prairies,  the  plans  must  be  different, 
and  the  expense  probably  greater,  but  the  results  ob- 
tained would  bounteously  reward  the  outlay.  I  shall 
not  see  the  day,  but  there  are  those  now  living  who 
will  see  it,  when  Artesian  wells  will  be  dug  at  points 
wliere  many  acres  may  be  flowed  from  a  gentle  swell 
in  the  midst  of  a  vast  plain,  or  at  the  head  of  a  fertile 
valley,  expressly,  or  at  least  mainly,  that  its  waters 

(79) 


80  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FABMING. 

may  be  led  across  that  plain,  adown  that  valley,  in 
irrigating  streams  and  ditches,  until  they  have  been 
wholly  drank  up  by  the  soil.  I  have  seen  single  wells 
in  California  that  might  be  made  to  irrigate  suffici- 
ently hundreds  of  acres,  by  the  aid  of  a  reservoir  into 
which  their  waters  could  be  discharged  when  the  soil 
did  not  require  them,  and  there  retained  until  the 
thirsty  earth  demanded  them. 

An  old  and  successful  farmer  in  my  neighborhood 
affirms  that  Water  is  the  cheapest  and  best  fertilizer 
ever  applied  to  the  soil.  If  this  were  understood  to 
mean  that  no  other  is  needed  or  can  be  profitably 
applied,  it  would  be  erroneous.  Still,  I  think  it 
clearly  true  that  the  annual  product  of  most  farms 
can  be  increased,  and  the  danger  of  failure  averted, 
more  cheaply  by  the  skillful  application  of  water  than 
by  that  of  any  other  fertilizer  whatever,  Plaster 
(Gypsum)  possibly  excepted. 

I  took  a  run  through  Yirginia  last  Summer,  not  far 
from  the  1  st  of  August.  That  State  was  then  suffer- 
ing intensely  from  drouth,  as  she  continued  to  do  for 
some  weeks  thereafter.  I  am  quite  sure  that  I  saw 
on  her  thirsty  plains  and  hillsides  not  less  than  three 
hundred  thousand  acres  planted  with  Indian  Corn, 
whereof  the  average  product  could  not  exceed  ten 
bushels  per  acre,  while  most  of  it  would  fall  far  below 
that  yield,  and  there  were  thousands  of  acres  that 
would  not  produce  one  sound  ear !  Every  one  deplor- 
ed the  failure,  correctly  attributing  it  to  the  prevail- 
ing drouth.  And  yet,  I  passed  hundreds  if  not 


THE   POSSIBILITIES   OF   IRRIGATION.  81 

thousands  of  places  where  a  very  moderate  outlay 
would  have  sufficed  to  dam  a  stream  or  brooklet  issu- 
ing from  between  two  spurs  of  the  Blue  Ridge,  or  the 
Allegheniqs,  so  that  a  refreshing  current  of  the  copious 
and  fertilizing  floods  of  Winter  and  Spring,  warmed 
by  the  fervid  suns  of  June  and  July,  could  have  been 
led  over  broad  fields  lying  below,  so  as  to  vanquish 
drouth  and  insure  generous  harvests.  Nay;  I  feel 
confident  that  I  could  in  many  places  have  construc- 
ted rude  works  in  a  week,  after  that  drouth  began  to 
be  felt,  that  would  have  saved  and  made  the  Corn  on 
at  least  a  portion  of  the  planted  acres  through  which 
the  now  shrunken  brooks  danced  and  laughed  idly 
down  to  the  larger  streams  in  the  wider  and  equally 
thirsty  valleys.  .Qf  course,  I  know  that  this  would 
have  been  imperfect  irrigation — a  mere  stop-gap — 
that  the  cold  spring- water  of  a  parched  Summer  can- 
not fertilize  as  the  hill -wash  of  Winter  and  Spring,  if 
thriftily  garnered  and  warmed  through  and  through 
for  sultry  weeks,  would  do ;  yet  I  believe  that  very 
many  farmers  might,  even  then,  have  secured  partial 
crops  by  such  irrigation  as  was  still  possible,  had  they, 
even  at  the  eleventh  hour,  done  their  best  to  retrieve 
the  errors  of  the  past. 

.  For  the  present,  I  would  only  counsel  every  farmer 
to  give  his  land  a  careful  scrutiny  with  a  view  to  ir- 
rigation in  the  future.  No  one  is  obliged  to  do  any 
faster  than  his  means  will  justify ;  and  yet  it  may  be 
well  to  have  a  clear  comprehension  of  all  that  may 
ultimately  be  done  to  profit,  even  though  much  of 
4* 


82  WHAT  I  KNOW   OF  FARMING. 

it  must  long  remain  un attempted.  In  many  cases, 
a  stream  may  be  dammed  for  the  power  which  it  will 
afford  for  two  or  three  months  of  each  year,  if  it 
shall  appear  that  this  use  is  quite  consistent  with  its 
employment  to  irrigation,  when  the  former  alone 
would  not  justify  the  requisite  outlay.  It  is  by  thus 
making  one  expense  subserve  two  quite  independent 
but  not  inconsistent  purposes  that  success  is  attained 
in  other  pursuits  ;  and  so  it  may  be  in  farming. 

As  yet,  each  farmer  must  study  his  own  resources 
with  intent  to  make  the  most  of  them.  If  a  manage- 
able stream  crosses  or  issues  from  his  land,  he  must 
measure  its  fall  thereon,  study  the  lay  of  the  land, 
and  determine  whether  he  can  or  cannot,  at  a  toler- 
able cost,  make  that  stream  available  in  the  irriga- 
tion of  at  least  a  portion  of  his  growing  crops  when 
they  shall  need  water  and  the  skies  decline  to  supply 
it.  On  many,  I  think  on  most,  farms  situated  among 
hills,  or  upon  the  slopes  of  mountains,  something 
may  be  done  in  this  way — done  at  once,  and  with 
immediate  profit.  But  this  is  rudimentary,  partial, 
fragmentary,  when  compared  with  the  irrigation  which 
yet  shall  be.  I  am  confident  that  there  are  points  on 
the  Carson,  the  Humboldt,  the  "Weber,  the  South 
Platte,  the  Cache-le-Poudre,  and  many  less  noted 
streams  which  thrid  the  central  plateau  of  our  conti- 
nent, where  an  expenditure  of  $10,000  to  $50,000 
may  be  judiciously  made  in  a  dam,  locks  and  canals, 
for  the  purposes  of  irrigation  and  milling  combined, 
with  a  moral  certainty  of  realizing  fifty  per  cent,  an- 


THE   POSSIBILITIES   OF   IRRIGATION  83 

nually  on  the  outlay,  with  a  steady  increase  in  the 
value  of  the  property.  If  my  eye  did  not  deceive 
me,  there  is  one  point  on  the  Carson  where  a  dam 
that  need  not  cost  $50,000  would  irrigate  one  hundred 
square  miles  of  rich  plain  which,  when  I  saw  it  eleven 
years  ago,  grew  nought  but  the  worthless  shrubs  of  the 
desert,  simply  because  nothing  else  could  endure  the 
intense,  abiding  drouth  of  each  Nevada  Summer. 
Such  palpable  invitations  to  thrift  cannot  remain  for- 
ever unimproved. 

In  regions  like  this,  where  Summer  rains  are  the 
rule  rather  than  the  exception,  the  need  of  irrigation 
is  not  so  palpable,  since  we  do  or  may  secure  decent 
average  crops  in  its  absence.  Yet  there  is  no  farm 
in  our  country  that  would  not  yield  considerably 
more  grain  and  more  grass,  more  fruit  and  more  veg- 
etables, if  its  owner  had  water  at  command  which 
he  could  apply  at  pleasure  and  to  any  extent  he  should 
deem  requisite.  Most  men,  thus  empowered,  would 
at  first  irrigate  too  often  and  too  copiously ;  but  ex- 
perience would  soon  temper  their  zeal,  and  teach 
them 

"  The  precious  art  of  Not  too  much  ; " 

and  they  would  thenceforth  be  careful  to  give  their 
soil  drink  yet,  not  drown  it. 

Whoever  lives  beyond  the  close  of  this  century, 
and  shall  then  traverse  our  prairie  States,  will  see 
them  whitened  at  intervals  by  the  broad  sails  of 
windmills  erected  over  wells,  whence  every  gale  or 


84  WHAT  I   KNOW   OF  FABMING. 

breeze  will  be  employed  in  pumping  water  into  the 
ponds  or  reservoirs  so  located  that  water  may  be 
drawn  therefrom  at  will  and  diffused  in  gentle 
streamlets  over  the  surrounding  fields  to  invigorate 
and  impel  their  growing  crops.  And,  when  all  has 
been  done  that  this  paper  faintly  foreshadows,  our 
people  will  have  barely  indicated,  not  by  any  means 
exhausted,  the  beneficent  possibilities  of  irrigation. 

The  difficulty  is  in  making  a  beginning.  Too 
many  farmers  would  fain  conceal  a  poverty  of 
thought  behind  an  affectation  of  dislike  or  contempt 
for  novelties.  "  Humbug  !  "  is  their  stereotyped 
comment  on  every  suggestion  that  they  might  wisely 
and  profitably  do  something  otherwise  than  as  their 
grandfathers  did.  They  assume  that  those  respected 
ancestors  did  very  well  without  Irrigation;  where- 
fore, it  cannot  now  be  essential.  But  the  circum- 
stances have  materially  changed.  The  disappear- 
ance of  the  dense,  high  woods  that  formerly  almost 
or  quite  surrounded  each  farm  has  given  a  sweep 
to  the  heated,  parching  winds  of  Summer,  to  which 
our  ancestors  were  strangers.  Our  springs,  our 
streams,  do  not  hold  out  as  they  once  did.  Our 
Summer  drouths  are  longer  and  fiercer.  Even 
though  our  grandfathers  did  not,  we  do  need  and 
may  profit  by  Irrigation. 


XIV. 

PLOWING — DEEP  OR  SHALLOW. 

RULES  absolutely  without  exception  are  rare  ;  and 
they  who  imagine  that  I  insist  on  plowing  all  lands 
deeply  are  wrong  for  I  hold  that  much  land  should 
never  be  plowed  at  all.  .  In  fact,  I  have  seen  in  my 
life  nearly  as  large  an  area  that  ought  not  as  I  have 
that  ought  to  be  plowed,  by  which  I  mean  that  half 
the  land  I  have  seen  may  serve  mankind  better  if  de- 
voted to  timber  than  if  subjected  to  tillage.  I  per- 
sonally know  farmers  who  would  thrive  far  better 
if  they  tilled  but  half  the  area  they  do,  bestowing  on 
this  all  the  labor  and  fertilizers  they  spread  over  the 
whole,  even  though  they  threw  the  residue  into  com- 
mon and  left  it  there.  I  judge  that  a  majority  of  our 
fanners  could  increase  the  recompense  of  their  toil 
by  cultivating  fewer  acres  than  they  now  do. 

Nor  do  I  deny  that  there  are  soils  which  it  is  not 
advisable  to  plow  deeply.  Prof.  Mapes  told  me  he 
had  seen  a  tract  in  West  Jersey  whereof  .the  soil  was 
but  eight  inches  deep,  resting  on  a  stratum  of  cop- 
peras (sulphate  of  iron,)  which,  being  upturned  by 
the  plow  and  mingled  with  the  soil,  poisoned  the 


86  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

crops  planted  thereon.  And  I  saw,  last  Summer,  on 
the  intervale  of  New  River,  in  the  western  part  of 
Old  Yirginia,  many  acres  of  Corn  which  were  thrifty 
and  luxuriant  in  spite  of  shallow  plowing  and  in- 
tense drouth,  because  the  rich,  black  loam  which  had 
there  been  deposited  by  semi-annual  inundations, 
until  its  depth  ranged  from  two  to  twenty  feet,  was  so 
inviting  and  permeable  that  the  corn-roots  ran  below 
the  bottom  of  the  furrow  about  as  readily  as  above 
that  line.  I  do  not  doubt  that  there  are  many  mil- 
lions of  acres  of  such  land  that  would  produce  tol- 
erably, and  sometimes  bounteously,  though  simply 
scratched  over  by  a  brush  harrow  and  never  plowed 
at  all.  In  the  infancy  of  our  race,  when  there  were 
few  mouths  to  fill  and  when  farming  implements 
were  very  rude  and  ineffective,  cultivation  was  all 
but  confined  to  these  facile  strips  and  patches,  so 
that  the  utility,  the  need,  of  deep  tillage  was  not  ap- 
parent. And  yet,  we  know  the  crops  often  failed 
utterly  in  those  days,  plunging  whole  nations  into 
the  miseries  of  famine. 

The  primitive  plow  was  a  forked  stick  or  tree-top, 
whereof  one  prong  formed  the  coulter,  the  other  and 
longer  the  beam;  and  he  who  first  sharpened  the 
coulter-prong  with  a  stone  hatchet  was  the  Whitney 
or  McCormick  of  his  day.  The  plow  in  common  use 
to-day  in  Spain  or  Turkey  is  an  improvement  on 
this,  for  it  has  an  iron  point ;  still,  it  is  a  miserable 
tool.  When,  at  five  years  old,  I  first  rode  the  horse 
which  drew  my  father's  plow  in  furrowing  for  or  culti- 


PLOWING— DEEP  OR  SHALLOW.         87 

vating  his  corn,  it  Lad  au  iron  coulter  and  an  iron 
share ;  but  it  was  mainly  composed  of  wood.  In  the 
hard,  rocky  soil  of  New-Hampshire,  as  full  of  bowl- 
ders and  pebbles  as  a  Christmas  pudding  is  of  plums, 
plowing  with  such  an  implement  was  a  sorry  business 
at  best.  My  father  hitched  eight  oxen  and  a  horse 
to  his  plow  when  he  broke  up  pebbly  green-sward, 
and  found  an  acre  of  it  a  very  long  day's  work.  I 
hardly  need  add  that  subsoiling  was  out  of  the  ques- 
tion, and  that  six  inches  was  the  average  depth  of  his 
furrow. 

I  judge  that  the  best  Steel  Plows  now  in  use  do 
twice  the  execution  that  his  did  with  a  like  expendi- 
ture of  power — that  we  can,  with  equal  power,  plow 
twelve  inches  as  easily  and  rapidly  as  he  plowed  six. 
Ought  we  to  do  it ?  Will  it  pay? 

I  first  farmed  for  myself  in  1845  on  a  plat  of  eight 
acres,  in  what  was  then  the  open  country  skirting  the 
East  River  nearly  abreast  the  lower  point  of  Black- 
well's  Island,  near  Fiftieth-st.,  on  a  little  indentation 
of  the  shore  known  as  Turtle  Bay.  None  of  the 
Avenues  east  of  Third  was  then  opened  above  Thir- 
tieth-st. ;  and  the  neighborhood,  though  now  perfor- 
ated by  streets  and  covered  with  houses,  was  as  rural 
and  secluded  as  heart  could  wish.  One  fine  Spring 
morning,  a  neighbor  called  and  offered  to  plow  for 
$5  my  acre  of  tillage  not  cut  up  by  rows  of  box  and 
other  shrubs  ;  and  I  told  him  to  go  ahead.  I  came 
home  next  evening,  just  as  he  was  finishing  the  job, 
which  I  contemplated  most  ruefully.  His  plow  was 


88  WHAT  I  KNOW  OF  FARMING. 

a  pocket  edition  ;  his  team  a  single  horse ;  his  furrows 
at  most  five  inches  deep.  I  paid  him,  but  told  him 
plainly  that  I  would  have  preferred  to  give  the 
money  for  nothing.  He  insisted  that  he  had  plowed 
for  me  as  he  plowed  for  others  all  around  me.  "  I 
will  tell  you,"  I  rejoined,  u  exactly  how  this  will  work. 
Throughout  the  Spring  and  early  Summer,  we  shall 
have  frequent  rains  and  moderate  heat :  thus  far,  my 
crops  will  do  well.  But  then  will  come  hot  weeks, 
with  little  or  no  rain ;  and  they  will  dry  up  thia 
shallow  soil  and  every  thing  planted  thereon," 

The  result  signally  justified  my  prediction.  We 
had  frequent  rains  and  cloudy,  mild  weather,  till  the 
1st  of  July,  when  the  clouds  vanished,  the  sun  came 
out  intensely  hot,  and  we  had  scarcely  a  sprinkle  till 
the  1st  of  September,  by  which  time  my  Corn  and 
Potatoes  had  about  given  up  the  ghost.  Like  the 
seed  which  fell  on  stony  ground  in  the  Parable  of  the 
Sower,  that  which  I  had  planted  had  withered  away 
"  because  there  was  no  root ;"  and  my  prospect  for  a 
harvest  was  utterly  blighted,  where,  with  twelve 
inches  of  loose,  fertile,  well  pulverized  earth  at  their 
roots,  my  crops  would  have  been  at  least  respectable. 
When  I  became  once  more  a  farmer  in  a  small  way 
on  my  present  place,  I  had  not  forgotten  the  lesson, 
and  I  tried  to  have  plowed  deeply  and  thoroughly 
BO  much  land  as  I  had  plowed  at  all.  My  first  Sum- 
mer here  (1853)  was  a  very  dry  one,  and  crops  failed 
in  consequence  around  me  and  all  over  the  country ; 
yet  mine  were  at  least  fair  ;  and  I  was  largely  indebt- 


PLOWING DEEP  OR  SHALLOW.          89 

ed  for  them  to  relatively  deep  plowing.  I  La  re  since 
suffered  from  frost  (on  my  low  land),  from  the  rotting 
of  seed  in  the  ground,  from  the  ravages  of  insects, 
etc. ;  but  never  by  drouth ;  and  I  am  entirely  confi- 
dent that  Deep  Plowing  has  done  me  excellent  ser- 
vice. My  only  trouble  has  been  to  get  it  done  ;  for 
there  are  apt  to  be  reasons — (haste,  lateness  in  the 
season,  etc.) — for  plowing  shallowly  for  "just  this 
time,"  with  full  intent  to  do  henceforth  better. 

I  close  this  paper  with  a  statement  made  to  me  by 
an  intelligent  British  farmer  living  at  Haidstone, 
south  of  England.  He  said : 

"  A  few  years  ago  there  came  into  my  hands  a  field 
of  twelve  acres,  which  had  been  an  orchard ;  but  the 
trees  were  hopelessly  in  their  dotage.  They  must  be 
cut  down  ;  then  their  roots  must  be  grubbed  out ;  so 
I  resolved  to  make  a  clean  job  of  it,  and  give  the.  field 
a  thorough  trenching.  Choosing  a  time  in  Autumn 
or  early  Winter  when  labor  was  abundant  and  cheap, 
I  had  it  turned  over  three  spits  (27  inches)  deep ;  the 
lowest  being  merely  reversed ;  the  next  reversed  and 
placed  at  the  top ;  the  surface  being  reversed  and 
placed  below  the  second.  The  soil  was  strong  and 
deep,  as  that  of  an  orchard  should  be  ;  I  planted  the 
field  to  Garden  Peas,  and  my  first  picking  was  very 
abundant.  About  the  time  that  peas  usually  begin  to 
wither  and  die,  the  roots  of  mine  struck  the  rich  soil 
which  had  been  the  first  stratum,  but  was  now  the 
second,  and  at  once  the  stalks  evinced  a  new  life — 


90  WIIAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

threw  out  new  blossoms,  which  were  followed  by 
pods ;  and  so  kept  on  blossoming  and  forming  peas 
for  weeks,  until  this  first  crop  far  more  than  paid  the 
cost  of  trenching  and  cultivation." 

Thus  far  my  English  friend.  Who  will  this  year 
try  a  patch  of  Peas  on  a  plat  made  rich  and  mellow 
for  a  depth  of  at  least  two  feet,  and  frequently  moist- 
ened in  Summer  by  some  rude  kind  of  irrigation  ? 

The  fierceness  of  our  Summer  suns,  when  not 
counteracted  by  frequent  showers,  shortens  deplor- 
ably the  productiveness  of  many  Vegetables  and 
Berries.  Our  Strawberries  bear  well,  but  too  brief- 
ly ;  our  Peas  wither  up  and  cease  to  blossom  after 
they  have  been  two  or  three  weeks  plump  enough 
to  pick.  Our  Raspberries,  Blackberries,  etc.,  fruit 
well,  but  are  out  of  bearing  too  soon  after  they  begin 
to  yield  their  treasures.  I  am  confident  that  this 
need  not  be.  With  a  deep,  rich  soil,  kept  moistened 
by  a  periodical  flow  of  water,  there  need  not  and 
should  not  be  any  such  haste  to  give  over  blooming 
and  bearing.  The  fruit  is  Nature's  attestation  of 
the  geniality  of  the  season,  the  richness  and  abun- 
dance of  the  elements  inhering  in  the  soil  or  supplied 
to  it  by  the  water.  Double  the  supply  of  these,  and 
sterility  should  be  postponed  to  a  far  later  day  than 
that  in  which  it  is  now  inaugurated. 


XY. 

PLOWING GOOD   AND  BAD. 

THERE  are  so  many  wrong  ways  to  do  a  thing  to 
but  one  right  one  that  there  is  no  reason  in  the  im- 
patience too  often  evinced  with  those  who  contrive 
to  swallow  the  truth  wrong  end  foremost,  and  there- 
upon insist  that  it  won't  do.  For  instance  :  A  farmer 
hears  something  said  of  deep  plowing,  and,  without 
any  clear  understanding  of  or  firm  faith  in  it,  resolves 
to  give  it  a  trial.  So  he  buys  a  great  plow,  makes  up 
a  strong  team,  and  proceeds  to  turn  up  a  field  hitherto 
plowed  but  six  inches  to  a  depth  of  a  foot :  in  other 
words,  to  bury  its  soil  under  six  inches  of  cold,  sterile 
clay,  sand,  or  gravel.  On  this,  he  plants  or  sows 
grain,  and  is  lucky  indeed  if  he  realizes  half  a  crop. 
Hereupon,  he  reports  to  his  neighbors  that  Deep 
Plowing  is  a  humbug,  as  he  suspected  all  along ;  but 
now  he  knows,  for  he  has  tried  it.  There  are  several 
other  wrong  ways,  which  I  will  hurry  over,  in  order 
to  set  forth  that  which  I  regard  as  the  right  one. 

Here  is  a  middling  farmer  of  the  old  school,  who 
walks  carefully  in  the  footsteps  of  his  respected 
grandfather,  but  with  inferior  success,  because  sixty 

(90 


92  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

annual  harvests,  though  not  particularly  luxuriant, 
have  partially  exhausted  the  productive  capacity  of 
the  acres  he  inherited.  He  now  garners  from  fifteen 
to  thirty  bushels  per  acre  of  Com,  from  ten  to  twenty 
of  Wheat,  from  fifteen  to  twenty  of  Rye,  from  twenty 
to  thirty  of  Oats,  and  from  a  tun  to  a  tun  and  a  half 
of  Hay,  as  the  season  proves  more  or  less  propitious, 
and  just  contrives  to  draw  from  his  sixty  to  one 
hundred  acres  a  decent  subsistence  for  his  family  ; 
plowing,  as  his  father  and  grandfather  did,  to  a 
depth  of  five  to  seven  inches :  What  can  Deep  Plow- 
ing do  for  him  f 

I  answer — By  itself,  nothing  whatever.  If  in 
every  other  respect  he  is  to  persist  in  doing  just  as 
his  father  and  his  grandfather  did,  I  doubt  the  ex- 
pediency of  doubling  the  depth  of  his  furrows. 
True,  the  worst  effects  of  the  change  would  be  re- 
alized at  the  outset,  and  I  feel  confident  that  his 
six  inches  of  subsoil,  having  been  made  to  change 
places  with  that  which  formerly  rested  upon  it,  must 
gradually  be  wrought  upon  by  air,  and  rain,  and 
frost,  until  converted  into  a  tolerably  productive 
soil,  through  which  the  roots  of  most  plants  would 
easily  and  speedily  make  their  way  do^Ti  to  the 
richer  stratum  which,  originally  surface,  has  been 
transposed  into  subsoil.  But  this  exchange  of  posi- 
tions between  the  original  surface  and  subsoil  is  not 
what  I  mean  by  Deep  Plowing,  nor  anything  like  it. 
What  I  do  mean  is  this : 

Having  thoroughly  underdrained  a  field,  so  that 


PLOWING — GOOD   AND   BAD.  93 

water  will  not  stand  upon  any  part  of  its  surface,  no 
matter  how  much  may  there  be  deposited,  the  next 
step  in  order  is  to  increase  the  depth  of  the  soil.  To 
this  end,  procure  a  regular  sub-soil  plow  of  the  most 
approved  pattern,  attach  to  it  a  strong  team,  and  let 
it  follow  the  breaking-plow  in  its  furrow,  lifting  and 
pulverizing  the  sub-soil  to  a  depth  of  not  less  than 
six  inches,  but  leaving  it  in  position  exactly  where  it 
was.  The  surface-plow  turns  the  next  furrow  upon 
this  loosened  sub-soil,  and  so  on  till  the  whole  field  is 
thus  pulverized  to  a  depth  of  not  less  than  twelve 
inches,  or,  better  still,  fifteen.  Now,  please  remem- 
ber that  you  have  twice  as  much  soil  per  acre  to 
fertilize  as  there  was  before ;  hence,  that  it  conse- 
quently requires  twice  as  much  manure,  and  you  will 
have  laid  a  good  foundation  for  increased  crops.  I 
do  not  say  that  all  the  additional  outlay  will  be  re- 
turned to  you  in  the  increase  of  your  next  crop,  for  I 
do  not  believe  anything  of  the  sort ;  but  I  do  believe 
that  this  crop  will  be  considerably  larger  for  this 
generous  treatment,  especially  if  the  season  prove  re- 
markably dry  or  uncommonly  wet ;  and  that  you  will 
have  insured  better  crops  in  the  years  to  come,  in- 
cluding heavier  grass,  after  that  field  shall  once  more 
be  laid  down ;  and  that,  in  case  of  the  planting  of 
that  field  to  fruit  or  other  trees,  they  will  grow  faster, 
resist  disease  better,  and  thrive  longer,  than  if  the 
soil  were  still  plowed  as  of  old.  (I  shah1  insist  here- 
after on  the  advantage  and  importance  of  subsoiling 
orchards.) 


94  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Take  another  aspect — that  of  subsoiling  hill-sides 
to  prevent  their  abrasion  by  water : 

I  have  two  bits  of  warm,  gravelly  hill-side,  which 
bountifully  yield  Corn,  Wheat  and  Oats,  but  which 
are  addicted  to  washing.  I  presume  one  of  these 
bits,  at  the  south-east  corner  of  my  farm,  has  been 
plowed  and  planted  not  less  than  one  hundred  times, 
and  that  at  least  half  the  fertilizers  applied  to  it  have 
been  washed  into  the  brook,  and  hence  into  the  Hud- 
son. To  say  that  $1,000  have  thus  been  squandered 
on  that  patch  t>f  ground,  would  be  to  keep  far  within 
the  truth.  And,  along  with  the  fertilizers,  a  large 
portion  of  the  finer  and  better  elements  of  the  ori- 
ginal soil  have  thus  been  swept  into  the  brook,  and 
so  lavished  upon  the  waters  of  our  bay.  But,  since 
I  had  those  lots  thoroughly  subsoiled,  all  the  water 
that  falls  upon  them  when  in  tillage  sinks  into  the 
soil,  and  remains  there  until  drained  away  by  filtra- 
tion or  evaporation  ;  and  I  never  saw  a  particle  of 
soil  washed  from  either  save  once,  when  a  thaw  of 
one  or  two  inches  on  the  surface,  leaving  the  ground 
solidly  frozen  beneath,  being  quickly  followed  by  a 
pouring  rain,  washed  away  a  few  bushels  of  the 
loosened  and  sodden  surface,  proving  that  the  law  by 
virtue  of  which  these  fields  were  formerly  denuded 
while  in  cultivation  is  still  active,  and  that  Deep 
Plowing  is  an  effective  and  all  but  unfailing  antidote 
for  the  evil  it  tends  to  incite. 

"We  plow  too  many  acres  annually,  and  do  not  plow 
them  so  thoroughly  as  we  ought.  In  the  good  time 


PLOWING GOOD^ND   BAD.  95 

coming,  when  Steam  shall  have  been  so  harnessed  to 
a  gang  of  six  to  twelve  plows  that,  with  one  man 
guiding  and  firing,  it  will  move  as  fast  as  a  man 
ought  to  walk,  steaming  on  and  thoroughly  pulver- 
izing from  twelve  to  twenty-five  acres  per  day,  I  be- 
lieve we  shall  plow  at  least  two  feet  deep,  and  plow 
not  less  than  twice  before  putting  in  any  crop  what- 
ever. Then  we  may  lay  down  a  field  in  the  confi- 
dent trust  that  it  will  yield  from  two  and  a  half  to 
three  tuns  of  good  hay  per  annum  for  the  next  ten 
or  twelve  years  ;  while,  by  the  help  of  irrigation  and 
occasional  top-dressing,  it  may  be  made  to  average 
at  least  three  tuns  for  a  life-time,  if  not  forever. 

When  my  Grass-land  requires  breaking  up — as  it 
sometimes  does — I  understand  that  it  was  not  prop- 
erly laid  down,  or  has  not  been  been  well  treated 
since.  A  good  grazing  farmer  once  insisted  in  my 
hearing  that  grass-land  should  never  be  plowed — that 
the  vegetable  mold  forming  the  surface,  when  the 
timber  was  first  cut  off,  should  remain  on  the  surface 
forever.  Considering  how  uneven  the  stumps  and 
roots  and  cradle-knolls  of  a  primitive  forest  are  apt 
to  leave  the  ground,  I  judge  that  this  is  an  extreme 
statement.  But  land  once  thoroughly  plowed  and 
subsoiled  ought  thereafter  to  be  kept  in  grass  by 
liberal  applications  of  Gypsum,  well-cured  Muck, 
and  barn-yard  Manure  to  its  surface,  without  needing 
to  be  plowed  again  and  reseeded.  Put  back  in 
Manure  what  is  taken  off  in  Hay,  and  the  Grass 
should  hold  its  own. 


XYI. 

THOROUGH   TILLAGE. 

MY  little,  hilly,  rocky  farm  teaches  lessons  of  thor- 
oughness which  I  would  gladly  impart  to  the  boys 
of  to-day  who  are  destined  to  be  the  farmers  of  the 
last  quarter  of  this  century.  I  am  sure  they  will  find 
profit  in  farming  better  than  their  grandfathers  did, 
and  especially  in  putting  their  land  into  the  best  possi- 
ble condition  for  effective  tillage.  There  were  stones 
in  my  fields  varying  in  size  from  that  of  a  brass  kettle 
up  to  that  of  a  hay-cock — some  of  them  raising  their 
heads  above  the  surface,  others  burrowing  just  below 
it — which  had  been  plowed  around  and  over  perhaps 
a  hundred  times,  till  I  went  at  them  with  team  and 
bar,  or  (where  necessary)  with  drill  and  blast,  turned 
or  blew  them  out,  and  hauled  them  away,  so  that  they 
will  interfere  with  cultivation  nevermore.  I  insist 
that  this  is  a  profitable  operation — that  a  field  which 
will  not  pay  for  such  clearing  should  be  planted  with 
trees  and  thrown  out  of  cultivation  conclusively. 
Dodging  and  skulking  from  rock  to  rock  is  hard  upon 
team,  plow,  and  plowman ;  and  it  can  rarely  pay. 
Land  ribbed  and  spotted  with  fast  rocks  will  pay  if 
(96) 


THOROUGH   TILLAGE.  97 

judiciously  planted  with  Timber — possibly  if  well  set 
in  Fruit — but  tilling  it  from  year  to  year  is  a  thank- 
less task ;  and  its  owner  may  better  work  by  the  day 
for  his  neighbors  than  try  to  make  his  bread  by  such 
tillage. 

So  with  fields  soaked  by  springs  or  sodden  with 
stagnant  water.  If  you  say  you  cannot  afford  to 
drain  your  wet  land,  I  respond  that  you  can  still  less 
afford  to  till  it  without  draining.  If  you  really  can- 
not afford  to  fit  it  for  cultivation,  your  next  best 
course  is  to  let  it  severely  alone. 

A  poor  man  who  has  a  rough,  rugged,  sterile  farm, 
winch  he  is  unable  to  bring  to  its  best  possible  con- 
dition at  once,  yet  which  he  clings  to  and  must  live 
from,  should  resolve  that,  if  life  and  health  be  spared 
him,  he  will  reclaim  one  field  each  year  until  all  that 
is  not  devoted  to  timber  shall  have  been  brought  into 
high  condition.  When  his  Summer  harvest  is  over, 
and  his  Fall  crops  have  received  their  last  cultiva- 
tion, there  will  generally  be  from  one  to  two  Autumn 
months  which  he  can  devote  mainly  to  this  work. 
Let  him  take  hold  of  it  with  resolute  purpose  to  im- 
prove every  available  hour,  not  by  running  over  the 
largest  possible  area,  but  by  dealing  with  one  field 
so  thoroughly  that  it  will  need  no  more  during  a  long 
life-time.  If  it  has  stone  that  the  plow  will  reach, 
dig  them  out;  if  it  needs  draining,  drain  it  so 
thoroughly  that  it  may  hereafter  be  plowed  in 
Spring  so  soon  as  the  frost  leaves  it ;  and  now  let 
soil  and  subsoil  be  so  loosened  and  pulverized  that 
5 


98  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

roots  may  freely  penetrate  them  to  a  depth  of  fifteen 
to  twenty  inches,  finding  nourishment  all  the  way, 
with  incitement  to  go  further  if  ever  failing  mois- 
ture shall  render  this  necessary.  Drouth  habitually 
shortens  our  Fall  crops  from  ten  to  fifty  per  cent. ;  it 
is  sure  to  injure  us  more  gravely  as  our  forests  are 
swept  away  by  ax  and  fire  ;  and,  while  much  may  be 
done  to  mitigate  its  ravages  by  enriching  the  soil  so 
as  to  give  your  crops  an  early  start,  and  a  rank,  lux- 
uriant growth,  the  farmer's  chief  reliance  must  still 
be  a  depth  of  soil  adequate  to  withstand  weeks  of 
the  fiercest  sunshine. 

I  have  considered  what  is  urged  as  to  the  choice  of 
roots  to  run  just  beneath  the  surface,  and  it  does  not 
signify.  Roots  seek  at  once  heat  and  moisture ;  if 
the  moisture  awaits  them  close  to  the  surface,  of 
course  they  mainly  run  there,  because  the  heat  is 
there  greatest.  If  moisture  fails  there,  they  must 
descend  to  seek  it,  even  at  the  cost  of  finding  the 
heat  inadequate — though  heat  increases  and  descends 
under  the  fervid  suns  which  rob  the  surface  of  mois- 
ture. Make  the  soil  rich  and  mellow  ever  so  far 
down,  and  you  need  not  fear  that  the  roots  will  de- 
scend an  inch  lower  than  they  should.  They  under- 
stand their  business;  it  is  your  sagacity  that  may 
possibly  prove  deficient. 

I  suspect  that  the  average  farmer  does  far  too  little 
plowing — by  which  I  mean,  not  that  he  plows  too 
few  acres,  for  he  often  plows  too  many,  but  that  he 
should  plow  oftener  as  well  as  deeper  and  more 


THOROUGH   TILLAGE.  99 

thoroughly.  I  spent  three  or  four  of  my  boyish 
Summers  planting  and  tilling  Corn  and  Potatoes  on 
fields  broken  up  just  before  they  were  planted,  never 
cross-plowed,  and  of  course  tough  and  intractable 
throughout  the  season.  The  yield  of  Corn  was  mid- 
dling, considering  the  season  ;  that  of  Potatoes  more 
than  middling ;  yet,  if  those  fields  had  been  well 
plowed  in  the  previous  Autumn,  cross-plowed  early 
in  tlfe  Spring,  and  thoroughly  harrowed  just  before 
planting-time,  I  am  confident  that  the  yield  would 
have  been  far  greater,  and  the  labor  (save  in  har- 
vesting) rather  less — the  cost  of  the  Fall  plowing 
being  over-balanced  by  the  saving  of  half  the  time 
necessarily  given  to  the  planting  and  hoeing. 

Fall  Plowing  has  this  recommendation — it  lightens 
labor  at  the  busier  season,  by  transfering  it  to  one  of 
comparative  dullness.  I  may  have  said  that  I  con- 
sider him  a  good  farmer  who  knows  how  to  make  a 
rainy  day  equally  effective  with  one  that  is  dry  and 
fair  ;  and,  in  the  same  spirit,  I  count  him  my  master 
in  this  art  who  can  make  a  day's  work  in  Autumn  or 
Winter  save  a  day's  work  in  Spring  or  Summer. 
Show  me  a  farmer  who  has  no  land  plowed  when 
May  opens,  and  is  just  waking  up  to  a  consciousness 
that  his  fences  need  mending  and  his  trees  want 
trimming,  and  I  will  guess  that  the  sheriff  will  be 
after  him  before  May  comes  round  again. 

There  is  no  superstition  in  the  belief  that  land  is 
(or  may  be)  enriched  by  Fall  Plowing.  The  Autumn 


100  WHAT   I    KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

gales  are  freighted  witli  the  more  volatile  elements 
of  decaying  vegetation.  These,  taken  up  wherever 
they  are  given  off  in  excess,  are  wafted  to  and  de- 
posited in  the  soils  best  fitted  for  their  reception. 
Regarded  simply  as  a  method  of  fertilizing,  I  do  not 
say  that  Fall  Plowing  is  the  cheapest ;  I  do  say  that 
any  poor  field,  if  < well  plowed  in  the  Fall,  will  be  in 
better  heart  the  next  Spring,  for  what  wind  and  rain 
will  meantime  have  deposited  thereon.  Frost,  too, 
in  any  region  where  the  ground  freezes,  and  es- 
pecially where  it  freezes  and  thaws  repeatedly,  plays 
an  important  and  beneficial  part  in  aerating  and  pul- 
verizing a  freshly  plowed  soil,  especially  one  thrown 
up  into  ridges,  so  as  to  be  most  thoroughly  exposed  to 
the  action  of  the  more  volatile  elements.  The  farmer 
who  has  a  good  team  may  profitably  keep  the  plow 
running  in  Autumn  until  every  rood  that  he  means 
to  till  next  season  has  been  thoroughly  pulverized. 

In  this  section,  our  minute  chequer-work  of  fences 
operates  to  obstruct  and  impede  Plowing.  Our  pre- 
decessors wished  to  clear  their  fields,  at  least  super- 
ficially, of  the  loose,  troublesome  bowlders  of  granite 
wherewith  they  were  so  thickly  sown  ;  they  mistak- 
enly fancied  that  they  could  lighten  their  own  toil 
by  sending  their  cattle  to  graze,  browse,  and  gnaw, 
wherever  a  crop  was  not  actually  on  the  ground  ;  so 
they  fenced  their  farms  into  patches  of  two  or  ten 
acres,  and  thought  they  had  thereby  increased  their 
value !  That  was  a  sad  miscalculation.  Weeds, 
briars  and  bushes  were  sheltered  and  nourished  by 


THOROUGH    TILLAGE.  101 

these  walls ;  weasels,  rats  and  other  destructive  ani- 
mals, found  protection  and  impunity  therein  ;  a 
wide  belt  on  either  side  was  made  useless  or  worse ; 
while  Plowing  was  rendered  laborious,  difficult,  and 
inefficient,  by  the  necessity  of  turning  after  every 
few  hundred  steps.  We  are  growing  slowly  wiser, 
and  burying  a  part  of  these  walls,  or  building  them 
into  concrete  barns  or  other  useful  structures;  but 
they  are  still  far  too  plentiful,  and  need  to  be  dealt 
with  more  sternly.  O  squatter  on  a  wide  prairie,  on 
the  bleak  Plains,  or  in  'a  broad  Pacific  valley,  where 
wood  must  be  hauled  for  miles  and  loose  stone  are 
rarely  visible,  thank  God  for  the  benignant  dispensa- 
tion which  has  precluded  you  from  half  spoiling  your 
farm  by  a  multiplicity  of  obstructing,  deforming 
fences,  and  so  left  its  soil  free  and  open  to  be  every- 
where pervaded,  loosened,  permeated,  by  the  reno- 
vating Plow ! 


XYIL 

COMMERCIAL   FERTILIZERS GYPSUM. 

PRICES  vary  so  widely  in  different  localities  that  no 
fertilizer  can  be  pronounced  everywhere  cheapest  or 
best  worth  buying ;  and  yet  I  doubt  that  there  is  a 
rood  of  our  country's  surface  in  fit  condition  to  be 
cultivated  to  which  Gypsum  (Plaster  of  Paris)  might 
not  be  applied  with  profit.  "Where  it  costs  $10  or 
over  per  tun,  I  would  apply  it  sparingly — say,  one 
bushel  per  acre — while  I  judge  three  bushels  per  acre 
none  too  much  in  regions  where  it  may  be  bought 
much  cheaper.  Even  the  poor  man  who  has  but  one 
cow,  should  buy  a  barrel  of  it,  and  dust  his  stable 
therewith  after  cleaning  it  each  day.  He  who  has  a 
stock  of  cattle  should  never  be  without  it,  and  should 
freely  use  it,  alike  in  stable  and  yard,  to  keep  down 
the  noisome  odors,  and  thus  retain  the  volatile  ele- 
ments of  the  manure.  Every  meadow,  every  pas- 
ture, should  be  sown  with  it  at  least  triennially ; 
where  it  is  abundant  and  cheap,  as  in  Central  New- 
York,  I  would  apply  it  each  year,  unless  careful  ob- 
servation should  satisfy  me  that  it  no  longer  sub- 
served a  good  purpose. 

As  to  the  time  of  application,  while  I  judge  any 

(102) 


COMMERCIAL    FERTILIZERS GYPSUM.  103 

season  will  do,  mj  present  impression  is  that  it  will 
do  most  good  if  applied  when  the  Summer  is  hottest 
and  the  ground  driest.  If,  for  instance,  you  close 
your  haying  in  mid-Summer,  having  been  hurried  by 
the  rapid  ripening  of  the  grass,  and  find  your  mea- 
dows baked  and  cracked  by  the  intense  heat,  I  reckon 
that  you  may  proceed  to  dust  those  meadows  with 
Gypsum  with  a  moral  certainty  that  none  of  it  will 
be  wasted.  So  if  your  Corn  and  other  Fall  crops  are 
suffering  from  and  likely  to  be  stunted  by  drouth,  I 
advise  the  application  of  Gypsum  broadcast,  as  evenly 
as  may  be  and  as  bounteously  as  its  price  and  your 
means  will  allow.  I  do  not  believe  it  so  well  to 
apply  it  specially  to  the  growing  stalks,  a  spoon-full 
or  so  per  hill ;  and  I  doubt  that  it  is  ever  judicious 
to  plant  it  in  the  hill  with  the  seed.  The  readiest 
and  quickest  mode  of  application  is  also,  I  believe, 
the  best. 

How  Gypsum  impels  and  invigorates  vegetable 
growth,  I  do  not  pretend  to  know ;  but  that  it  does 
so  was  demonstrated  by  Nature  long  before  Man 
took  the  hint  that  she.  freely  gave.  The  city  of  Paris 
and  a  considerable  adjacent  district  rest  on  a  bed  of 
Gypsum,  ranging  from  five  to  twenty  feet  below  the 
surface,  and  considerably  decomposed  in  its  upper 
portion  by  the  action  of  water.  This  region  produces 
Wheat  most  luxuriantly,  and  I  presume  has  done  so 
from  time  immemorial.  At  length  it  crawled  through 
the  hair  of  the  tillers  of  this  soil  that  the  substance 
which  did  so  much  good  fortuitously,  and  (as  it  were) 


104  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

because  it  could  not  do  otherwise,  might  do  still  more 
if  applied  to  the  soil,  with  deliberate  intent  to  test 
its  value  as  a  fertilizer.  The  result  we  all  under- 
stand. 

Gypsum  is  a  chemical  compound  of  Sulphur  and 
Lime — so  much  is  agreed;  and  the  theory  of  chemists 
has  been  that,  as  the  winds  pass  over  a  surface  sown 
with  it,  the  Ammonia  which  has  been  exhaled  by  a 
thousand  barn-yards,  bogs,  &c.,  having  a  stronger 
affinity  for  Sulphur  than  Lime  has,  dissolves  the 
Gypsum,  combines  with  the  Sulphur,  forming  a  Sul- 
phate of  Ammonia,  and  leaves  the  Lime  to  get  on  as 
it  may.  I  accept  this  theory,  having  no  reason  to  dis- 
trust it ;  and,  knowing  that  Sulphate  of  Ammonia  is 
a  powerful  stimulant  of  vegetable  growth  (as  any  one 
may  be  assured  by  buying  a  little  of  it  from  some 
druggist  and  making  the  necessary  application),  I  can 
readily  see  how  the  desired  result  might  in  this  way 
be  produced.  For  our  purpose,  however,  let  it  suf- 
fice that  it  is  produced,  of  which  almost  any  one  may 
be  convinced  by  sowing  with  Gypsum  and  passing  by 
alternate  strips  or  belts  of  the- same  clover-field.  I 
suspect  that  not  many  fertilizers  repay  their  cost  out 
of  the  first  crop ;  but  I  account  Gypsum  one  of  them  ; 
and  I  submit  that  no  farmer  can  aiford  not  to  try  it. 
That  its  good  effect  is  diminished  by  many  and  fre- 
quent applications,  is  highly  probable  ;  but  there  is  no 
hill  or  slope  to  which  Gypsum  has  never  yet  been 
applied  which  ought  not  to  make  its  acquaintance 
this  very  year.  I  am  confident  that  there  are  pastures 


COMMERCIAL   FERTILIZERS 3YP3UM.  105 

\vliich  might  be  made  to  increase  their  yield  of  Grass 
one-third  by  a  moderate  dressing  of  it. 

I  have  heard  Andrew  B.  Dickinson,  late  of  Steuben 
County,  and  one  of  the  best  unscientific,  unlearned 
fanners  ever  produced  by  our  State,  maintain  that  he 
can  not  only  enrich  his  own  farm  but  impoverish  hit; 
neighbors'  by  the  free  use  of  Gypsum  on  his  woodless 
hills.  The  chemist's  explanation  of  this  eifect  ip 
above  indicated.  The  plastered  land  attracts  an') 
absorbs  not  only  its  own  fair  proportion  of  the  breeze- 
borne  Ammonia,  but  much  that,  if  the  equilibrium 
had  not  been  disturbed  by  such  application,  would 
have  been  deposited  on  the  adjacent  hills.  As  Mr. 
D.  makes  not  the  smallest  pretensions  to  science,  the 
coincidence  between  his  dictum  and  the  chemist's 
theory  is  noteworthy. 

Now  that  our  country  is  completely  gridironed 
with  Canals  and  Railroads,  bringing  whatever  has  a 
mercantile  value  very  near  every  one's  door,  I  sug- 
gest that  no  township  should  go  without  Gypsum. 
Five  dollars  will  buy  at  least  two  barrels  of  it  almost 
anywhere ;  and  two  barrels  may  be  sown  over  five  or 
six  acres.  Let  it  be  sown  so  that  its  effect  (or  non- 
eflfect)  may  be  palpable ;  give  it  a  fair,  careful  trial, 
and  await  the  result.  If  it  seem  to  subserve  no 
good  purpose,  be  not  too  swift  to  enter  up  judgment; 
but  buy  two  barrels  more,  vary  your  time  and 
method  of  application,  and  try  again.  If  the  result 
be  still  null,  let  it  be  given  up  that  Gypsum  is  not 
the  fertilizer  needed  just  there — that  some  ill-under- 
5* 


106  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

stood  peculiarity  of  soil  or  climate  renders  it  there 
ineffective.  Then  let  its  use  be  there  abandoned ; 
but  it  will  still  remain  true  that,  in  many  localities 
and  in  countless  instances,  Gypsum  has  been  fully 
proved  one  of  the  best  and  cheapest  commercial  fer- 
tilizers known  to  mankind. 

I  never  tried,  but  on  the  strength  of  others'  testi- 
mony believe  in  the  improvement  of  soils  by  means 
of  calcined  clay  or  earth.  Mr.  Andrew  B.  Dickin- 
son showed  me  where  he  had,  during  a  dry  Autumn 
plowed  up  the  road-sides  through  his  farm,  started 
fires  with  a  few  roots  or  sticks,  and  then  piled  on 
soda  of  the  upturned  clay  and  grass-roots  till  the  fire 
was  nearly  smothered,  when  each  heap  smoked  and 
smouldered  like  a  little  coal-pit  till  all  of  it  that  was 
combustible  was  reduced  to  ashes,  when  ashes  and 
burned  clay  were  shoveled  into  a  cart  and  strewn 
over  his  fields,  to  the  decided  improvement  of  their 
crops.  Whoever  has  a  clay  sod  to  plow  up,  and  is 
deficient  in  manure,  may  repeat  this  experiment  with 
a  moral  certainty  of  liberal  returns. 


XVIII. 

ALKALIS  .  .  .  SALT — ASHES — LIME. 

I  DO  not  know  a  rood  of  our  country's  surface  so 
rich  in  all  the  materials  which  enter  into  the  produc- 
tion of  the  Grains,  Grasses,  Fruits,  and  Vegetables, 
which  are  the  objects  and  rewards  of  cultivation, 
that  it  could  not  be  improved  by  the  application  of 
fertilizers ;  if  there  be  such,  I  heartily  congratulate 
the  owners,  and  advise  them  not  to  sell.  Nor  do  I 
believe  that  there  are  many  acres  so  fertile  that  they 
would  not  produce  more  Indian  Corn,  more  Hemp, 
more  Cotton,  and  more  of  whatever  may  be  their  ap- 
propriate staple,  if  judiciously  fertilized.  If  there  be 
farms  or  fields  originally  so  good  that  manure  would 
not  increase  their  yield,  I  am  confident  that  the  first 
half-dozen  crops  will  have  taken  that  conceit  out  of 
them,  Prairies  and  river-bottoms  may  yield  ever  so 
bounteously ;  but  that  very  luxuriance  of  growth  in- 
jures their  gradual  exhaustion  of  certain  elements  of 
crops,  which  must  needs  be  replaced  or  their  product 
will  dwindle.  Whoever  has  sold  a  thousand  bushels 
of  grain,  or  its  equivalent  in  meat,  from  his  farm,  has 
thereby  impoverished  that  farm,  unless  he  has  ap- 

(107) 


108  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

plied  something  that  balances  its  loss.  "  I  perceive 
that  virtue  has  gone  out  of  me,"  observed  the  Saviour, 
because  the  hem  of  his  garment  had  been  touched  ; 
and  every  field  that  had  been  cropped  might  make  a 
similar  report  whenever  its  annual  loss  by  abstrac- 
tion has  not  been  balanced  by  some  kind  of  fertilizer. 
The  farmer  who  grows  the  largest  crops  is  the  most 
merciless  exhauster  of  the  soil,  unless  he  balances  his 
annual  drafts  (as  good  fanners  rarely  fail  to  do)  by  at 
least  equal  reinforcements  of  the  productive  capacity 
of  his  fields. 

The  good  farmer  begins  by  inquiring,  "  Wherein 
was  my  soil  originally  deficient  ?  and  of  what  has  it 
been  exhausted  by  subsequent  crops  ?"  I  judge  that 
my  gravelly  hill-sides  would  reward  the  application 
of  two  hundred  loads  (or  tuns)  of  pure  clay  per  acre, 
as  I  think  the  clay  flats  which  border  Lake  Cham- 
plain  would  pay  for  a  like  application  of  sand  or  fine 
gravel  where  that  material  is  found  in  convenient 
proximity ;  and  yet  I  know  very  well  that,  on  at 
least  three-fourths  of  our  country's  area,  such  appli- 
cation would  cost  far  more  than  it  would  be  worth. 
Every  farmer  must  act  on  his  knowledge  of  his  soil 
and  its  peculiar  needs,  and  not  blindly  follow  the  dic- 
tum of  another.  Yet  I  know  few  farms  which,  were 
they  mine,  I  would  not  consider  enhanced  in  value 
by  a  vigorous  application  of  some  alkaline  substance 
— Lime,  Salt,  Ashes,  or  some  of  the  cheaper  Nitrates. 
I  should  be  very  glad  to  apply  one  thousand  bushels 
of  good  house-made,  hard-wood  Ashes  to  my  twenty 


ALKALIS  .  .  .  SALT — ASHES — LIME.  109  . 

acres  of  arable  upland,  if  I  could  buy  them,  delivered, 
at  twenty-five  cents  per  bushel ;  but  they  are  not  to 
be  had.  I  doubt  that  there  are  a  hundred  acres  of 
warm,  dry,  gravelly  or  sandy  soil  east  of  the  Alle- 
ghanies  that  would  not  amply  reward  a  similar  ap- 
plication. But  Ashes  in  quantity  are  unattainable, 
since  no  good  farmer  sells  them,  and  Coal  is  the  chief 
fuel  of  cities  and  villages.  The  Marls  of  New-Jersey 
I  judge  fully  equal  in  average  value  to  Ashes  which 
have  been  nearly  deprived  of  their  potash  by  leach- 
ing, but  not  quite  half  equal,  bushel  for  bushel,  to 
•wwleached  Ashes.  I  judge  that  average  Marl  is 
worth  10  cents  per  bushel  where  Ashes  may  be  had 
for  25.  But  Marl  is  found  only  in  a  few  localities, 
and  a  material  worth  but  10  cents  per  bushel  will 
not  bear  transportation  beyond  40  mile^  by  wagon  or 
200  by  water.  Salt  is  only  found  or  made  at  a  few 
points,  and  is  too  dear  for  general  use  as  a  fertilizer. 
Where  the  refuse  product  of  Salt- Works  can  be 
cheaply  bought,  good  farmers  will  eagerly  compete 
for  it,  if  their  lands  at  aH  resemble  mine.  I  judge 
the  tun  of  Potash  I  ordered  fifteen  years  ago 
from  Syracuse,  paying  $50  and  transportation,  was 
the  cheapest  fertilizer  I  ever  bought.  It  was  so  im- 
pregnated with  Salt  (from  the  boiling  over  of  the 
salt-kettles  into  the  ashes)  as  to  be  worthless  for  other 
than  agricultural  purposes;  but  I  mixed  it  with  a 
large  pile  of  Muck  that  I  had  recently  dug,  and,  six 
or  eight  months  thereafter,  applied  the  product  to  a 
very  poor5  gravelly  hill-side  which  I  had  just  broken 


110  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

up ;  and  the  immediate  result  was  a  noble  crop  of 
Corn.  That  hill-side  has  not  yet  forgotten  the  appli- 
cation. 

— If  I  should  try  to  explain  just  how  and  why  Lime 
is  a  fertilizer,  I  should  probably  fail ;  and  I  am  well 
assured  that  liming  has  in  some  cases  been  overdone ; 
yet  I  think  most  observers  will  concur  in  my  state- 
ment that  any  region  which  has  been  limed  year  after 
year  produces  crops  of  noticeable  excellence.  I  cite  as 
examples  Chester  and  Lancaster  Counties,  Pennsyl- 
vania, with  Stark  and  adjacent  counties  of  Ohio. 
Possibly,  results  equally  gratifying  might  be  secured 
by  applying  some  other  substance  ;  I  only  know  that 
frequently  limed  lands  are  generally  good  lands,  as 
their  crops  do  testify..  I  heartily  wish  that  the  flat 
clay  intervales  of  Western  Vermont  could  have  a 
fair  trial  of  the  virtues  of  liming.  I  should  expect 
to  see  them  thereby  rendered  friable  and  arable ;  no 
longer  changing  speedily  from  the  semblance  of  tar 
to  that  of  brick,  but  readily  plowed  and  tilled,  and 
yielding  liberally  of  Grain  as  well  as  Grass.  I  am 
confident  that  most  farms  in  our  country  will  pay 
for  liming  to  the  extent  of  fifty  bushels  per  acre 
where  the  cost  of  quick -lime  does  not  exceed  ten 
cents  per  bushel ;  and  most  farmers,  by  taking,  hot 
from  the  kiln,  the  refuse  lime  that  is  deemed  unfit 
for  building  purposes,  can  obtain  it  cheaper  than  that. 

I  wish  some  farmer  who  gives  constant  personal 
attention  to  his  work — as  I  cannot— would  make 
some  careful  tests  of  the  practical  value  of  alkalis, 


ALKALIS  . .  .  SALT — ASHES — LIME.  Ill 

For  instance:  the  abundance  and  tenacity  of  our 
common  sorrel  is  supposed  to  indicate  an  acid  condi- 
tion of  the  soil ;  and  all  who  have  tried  it  know  that 
sorrel  is  hard  to  kill  by  cultivation.  I  suggest  that 
whoever  is  troubled  with  it  should  cover  two  square 
rods  with  one  bushel  of  quick-lime  just  after  plow- 
ing and  harrowing  this  Spring ;  then  apply  another 
bushel  to  four  square  rods  adjacent ;  then  make  simi- 
lar applications  of  ashes  to  two  and  four  square  rods 
respectively,  taking  careful  note  of  the  boundaries  of 
each  patch,  and  leaving  the  rest  of  the  field  destitute 
of  either  application.  I  will  not  anticipate  the  re- 
sult :  more  than  one  year  may  be  required  to  evolve 
it ;  but  I  am  confident  that  a  few  such  experiments 
would  supply  data  whereof  I  am  in  need ;  and  there 
are  doubtless  others  whose  ignorance  is  nearly  equal 
to  mine. 

Many  have  applied  Lime  to  their  fields  without 
realizing  any  advantage  therefrom.  In  some  cases, 
there  was  already  a  sufficiency  of  this  ingredient  in 
the  soil,  and  the  application  of  more  was  one  of  those 
many  wasteful  blunders  induced  by  our  ignorance  of 
Chemistry.  But  much  Lime  is  naturally  adultera- 
ted with  other  minerals,  especially  with  Manganese, 
so  that  its  application  to  most  if  not  to  all  soils  sub- 
serves no  good  end.  In  the  absence  of  exact,  scien- 
tific knowledge,  I  would  buy  fifty  bushels  of  quick- 
lime, apply  them  to  one  acre  running  through  a  field, 
and  watch  the  effect.  If  it  does  n't  pay,  you  have 
a  bad  article,  or  your  soil  is  not  deficient  in  Liine. 


XIX. 

SOILS   AND   FERTILIZERS. 

A  FARMER  is  a  manufacturer  of  articles  wherefrom 
mankind  are  fed  and  clad ;  his  raw  materials  are  the 
soil  and  the  various  substances  he  mingles  therewith 
or  adds  thereto  in  order  to  increase  its  productive 
capacity.  His  art  consists  in  transforming  by  cul- 
tivation crude,  comparatively  worthless,  and  even 
noxious,  offensive  materials  into  substances  grateful 
to  the  senses,  nourishing  to  the  body,  and  sometimes 
invigorating,  even  strengthening,  to  the  mind. 

I  have  heard  of  lands  that  were  naturally  rich 
enough ;  I  never  was  so  lucky  or  perchance  so  dis- 
cerning as  to  find  them.  Yet  I  have  seen  Illinois 
bottoms  whereof  I  was  assured  that  the  soil  was  fully 
sixteen  feet  deep,  and  a  rich,  black  alluvium  from  top 
to  bottom  ;  and  I  do  not  question  the  statements 
made  to  me  from  personal  observation  that  portions 
of  the  strongly  alkaline  plain  or  swale  on  which  Salt 
Lake  City  is  built,  being  for  the  first  time  plowed, 
irrigated,  and  sown  to  Wheat,  yielded  ninety  bushels 
of  good  grain  per  acre.  I  never  saw,  yet  on  evidence 


SOILS   AND   FERTILIZERS.  113 

believe,  that  pioneer  settlers  of  the  Miami  Yallej, 
wishing,  some  years  after  settling  there,  to  sell  their 
farms,  advertised  them  as  peculiarly  desirable  in 
that  the  barns  stood  over  a  creek  or  "  branch," 
which  swept  away  the  manure  each  Winter  or  Spring 
without  trouble  to  the  owner ;  and  I  have  myself 
grown  both  Wheat  and  Oats  that  were  very  rank  and 
heavy  in  straw,  yet  which  fell  so  flat  and  lay  so  dead 
that  the  heads  scarcely  bore  a  kernel.  Had  I  been  a 
wiser,  better  farmer,  I  should  have  known  how  to 
stiffen  the  straw  and  make  it  do  its  office,  in  spite  of 
wind  and  storm. 

[And  let  me  here  say,  lest  I  forget  it  in  its  appro- 
priate place,  that  I  am  confident  that  most  farmers 
sow  grain  too  thickly  for  any  but  very  poor  land.  If 
one  thinks  it  necessary  to  scatter  three  bushels  of 
Oats  per  acre,  I  tell  him  that  he  should  apply  more 
manure  and  less  seed — that  land  which  requires  three 
bushels  of  seed  is  not  rich  enough  to  bear  Oats.  He 
might  better  concentrate  his  manure  on  half  so  much 
land,  and  save  two-thirds  of  his  seed.] 

I  do  not  hold  that  the  remarkably  rich  soils  I  have 
instanced  needed  fertilizing  when  first  plowed ;  I 
will  presume  that  they  did  not.  Yet,  having  never 
yet  succeeded  in  manuring  a  corn-field  so  high  that 
a  few  loads  more  would  not  (I  judge)  have  increased 
the  crop,  I  doubt  whether  even  the  richest  Illinois 
bottoms  would  not  yield  more  Corn,  year  by  year,  if 
reenforced  with  the  contents  of  a  good  barn-yard. 
And,  when  the  first  heavy  crop  of  Corn  has  been 


114:  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

taken  from  a  field,  that  field — no  matter  how  deep  and 
fertile  its  soil — is  less  rich  in  corn-forming  elements 
than  it  was  before.  Just  so  sure  as  that  there  is  no 
depletion  or  shrinkage  when  nothing  is  taken  from 
nothing,  so  sure  is  it  that  something  cannot  be  taken 
from  something  without  diminishing  its  capacity  to 
yield  something  at  the  next  call.  Rotation  of  crops 
is  an  excellent  plan  ;  for  one  may  flourish  on  that 
which  another  has  rejected ;  but  this  does  not  over- 
bear Nature's  inflexible  exaction  of  so  much  for  so 
much.  Hence,  if  there  ever  was  a  field  so  rich  that 
nothing  could  be  added  that  would  increase  its  pro- 
ductive capacity,  the  first  exacting  crop  thereafter 
taken  from  it  diminished  that  capacity,  and  rendered 
a  fresh  application  of  some  fertilizer  desirable. 

Years  ago,  a  Western  man  exhibited  at  our  Farm- 
ers' Club  a  specimen  of  the  soil  of  his  region  which 
was  justly  deemed  very  rich,  taken  from  a  field 
whereon  Corn  had  been  repeatedly  grown  without 
apparent  exhaustion.  A  chemical  analysis  had  been 
made  of  it,  which  was  submitted  with  the  soil.  It 
was  claimed  that  nothing  could  improve  its  capacity 
for  producing  the  great  Illinois  staple.  Prof,  Mapes 
dissented  from  this  conclusion.-  "  This  soil,"  said  he, 
"while  very  rich  in  nearly  every  element  which 
enters  into  the  composition  of  Corn,  gives  barely  a 
trace  of  Chlorine,  the  base  of  Salt.  Hence,  if  five 
bushels  per  acre  of  Salt  be  applied  to  that  field,  and 
it  does  not  thereupon  yield  five  bushels  more  per 
annum  of  Corn,  I  will  agree  to  eat  the  field." 


SOILS   AND   FEKTILIZEBS.  115 

Many  men  fertilize  their  poor  lands  only,  supposing 
that  the  better  can  do  without.  I  judge  that  to  be  a 
mistake.  My  rule  would  be  to  plant  the  poorest  with 
such  choice  trees  as  thrive  without  manure,  and  pile 
the  fertilizers  upon  the  better.  It  seems  to  me 
plain  that  of  two  fields,  one  of  which  has  a  soil  con- 
taining nine-tenths  of  the  elements  of  the  desired 
crop,  while  the  other  shows  but  one  to  three-tenths, 
it  is  a  more  hopeful  and  less  thankless  task  to  enrich 
the  former  than  the  latter.  If  you  are  required  to 
supply  to  a  field  nearly  everything  that  your  pro- 
posed crop  will  withdraw  from  it,  I  do  not  see  where 
the  profit  comes  in  ;  but  if  you  are  required  to  supply 
but  a  tenth,  because  the  soil  as  you  found  it  stood 
ready  to  contribute  the  remaining  nine-tenths,  it 
seems  to  me  that  the  margin  for  profit  is  here  de- 
cidedly the  greater. 

How  many  tuns  of  earth  ought  a  farmer  to  be 
obliged  to  turn  over  and  over  in  order  to  obtain 
therefrom  a  hundred  bushels  of  Corn?  Two  hun- 
dred ?  Five  hundred  ?  A  thousand  ?  Five  thousand  ? 
Other  things  being  equal,  no  one  will  doubt  that,  if 
he  can  make  the  Corn  from  one  hundred  tuns  of  soil, 
it  were  better  to  do  so  than  to  employ  five  hundred 
or  five  thousand.  It  seems  clear  to  my  mind  that, 
though  other  conditions  be  unequal,  it  is  generally 
well  to  endeavor  to  produce  the  required  quantity 
from  the  smaller  rather  than  the  larger  area. 

I  fully  share  the  average  farmer's  partiality  for 
barn -yard  manure  in  preference  to  most,  if  not  all, 


116  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

commercial  fertilizers.  In  my  judgment,  almost  any 
farmer  who  has  cattle,  with  fit  shelter  and  Winter 
fodder,  can  make  fertilizers  far  cheaper  than  he  can 
buy  them.  I  judge  that  almost  every  farmer  who  has 
paid  $100  or  over  for  Guano  (for  instance),  might 
have  more  considerably  enriched  his-  farm  by  draw- 
ing muck  from  some  convenient  bog  or  pond  into  his 
barn-yard  in  August  or  September  and  carting  it 
thence  to  his  fields  the  next  Fall.  If  he  can  get  no 
muck  within  a  mile,  let  him  cut,  when  they  are 
in  blossom,  all  the  weeds  that  grow  near  him,  es- 
pecially by  the  road-side,  cart  them  at  once  into  his 
barn-yard,  and  there  convert  them  into  fertilizers. 
In  Autumn,  replace  the  hay-rack  on  the  wagon  or 
cart,  and  pile  load  after  load  of  freshly-fallen  leaves 
into  your  yard ;  taking  them,  if  you  may,  from  the 
sides  of  roads  and  fences,  and  from  any  place  where 
they  may  have  been  lodged  or  heaped  by  the  winds, 
your  own  wood-lot  excepted.  Plow  the  turf  off  of 
any  scurvy  lot  or  road-side,  and  pile  it  into  the  barn- 
yard; nay,  dig  a  hundred  loads  of  pure  clay,  and 
place  it  there, if  you  can  get  it  at  a  small  expense,  and 
your  average  soil  is  gravelly  or  sandy.  The  farmer 
who  is  unable  or  reluctant  to  buy  commercial  fertil- 
izers should  apply  his  whole  force  every  Autumn  to 
replenishing  his  barn-yard  with  that  material  which 
he  can  obtain  most  easily  which  the  trampling  of  his 
cattle  may  readily  convert  into  manure.  A  month  is 
too  little,  two  months  would  not  be  too  much,  to  de- 
vote to  this  good  work.  Some  may  seem  obliged  to 


SOILS   AND   FERTILIZERS.  117 

postpone  it  to  Winter ;  but  that  is  to  run  the  risk  of 
embarrassment  by  frost  or  snow,  and  encounter  the 
certainty  that  your  material  will  be  inferior  in 
quality,  or  not  so  well  fitted  to  apply  to  grain-crops 
the  ensuing  Fall. 

— All  this,  you  may  say,  is  not  instruction.  We 
ought  to  know  exactly  what  lands  are  enriched  by 
Gypsum,  and  what,  if  any,  are  not ;  why  these  are 
fertilized,  why  those  are  not,  by  a  common  appli- 
cation ;  how  great  is  the  profit  of  such  application  in 
any  case  ;  and  what  substitute  can  most  nearly  sub- 
serve the  same  ends  where  Gypsum  is  not  to  be 
had.  I  admit  all  you  claim,  and  do  not  doubt  that 
there  shall  yet  be  a  Scientific  Agriculture  that  will 
fully  answer  your  requirements.  As  yet,  however, 
it  exists  but  in  suggestions  and  fragments;  and 
attempts  to  complete  it  by  naked  assertions  and 
sweeping  generalizations  tend  rather  to  mislead  and 
disgust  the  young  farmer  than  really  to  enlighten  and 
guide  him.  At  all  events,  I  shall  aim  to  set  forth 
as  true  no  more  than  I  know,  or  with  good  reason 
confidently  believe. 

I  close  by  reiterating  my  belief  that  no  farmer  ever 
yet  impoverished  himself  by  making  too  much  ma- 
nure or  by  applying  too  much  of  his  own  manufac- 
ture. I  cannot  speak  so  confidently  of  Twying  com- 
mercial fertilizers;  but  these  I  will  discuss  in  my 
next  chapter. 


XX. 

BONES — PHOSPHATES GTJANO. 

I  HATE  to  check  improvement  or  chill  the  glow  of 
Faith ;  yet  I  do  so  keenly  apprehend  that  many  of 
our  people,  especially  among  the  Southern  cotton- 
growers,  are  squandering  money  on  Commercial  Fer- 
tilizers, that  I  am  bound  to  utter  my  note  of  warning, 
even  though  it  should  pass  wholly  unheeded.  Let  me 
make  my  position  as  clear  as  I  can. 

I  live  in  a  section  which  has  been  cultivated  for 
more  than  two  centuries,  while  its  proximity  to  a 
great  city  has  tempted  to  crop  it  incessantly,  ex- 
haustively. "Wheat  while  its  original  surface  soil  of 
six  to  twelve  inches  of  vegetable  mold  (mainly  com- 
posed of  decayed  forest-leaves)  remained ;  then  Corn 
and  Oats ;  at  length,  Milk,  Beef,  and  Apples — have 
exhausted  the  hill-sides  and  gentler  slopes  of  West- 
chester  County,  except  where  they  have  been  kept  in 
heart  by  judicious  culture  and  liberal  fertilizing ; 
and,  even  here,  that  subtle  element,  Phosphorus, 
which  enters  minutely  but  necessarily  into  the  com- 
position of  every  animal  and  nearly  every  vegetable 
structure,  has  been  gradually  drawn  away  in  Grain, 


BONES — PHOSPHATES GUANO.  119 

in  Milk,  in  Bones,  and  not  restored  to  the  soil  by  the 
application  of  ordinary  manures.  I  am  convinced 
that  a  field  may  be  so  manured  as  to  give  three  tuns 
of  Hay  per  acre,  yet  so  destitute  of  Phosphorus  that 
a  sound,  healthy  animal  cannot  be  grown  therefrom. 
For  two  centuries,  the  tillers  of  Westchester  County 
knew  nothing  of  Chemistry  or  Phosphorus,  and  al- 
lowed the  unvalued  bones  of  their  animals  to  be  ex- 
ported to  fatten  British  meadows, without  an  effort  to 
retain  them.  Hence,  it  has  become  absolutely  essen- 
tial that  we  buy  and  apply  Phosphates,  even  though 
the  price  be  high;  for  our  land  can  no  longer  do 
without  them.  Wherever  a  steer  or  heifer  can  OCT 
casionally  be  caught  gnawing  or  mumbling  over  an 
old  bone,  there  Phosphates  are  indispensable,  no 
matter  at  what  cost.  Better  pay  $100  per  tun  for  a 
dressing  of  one  hundred  pounds  of  Bone  per  acre 
than  try  to  do  without. 

But  no  lands  recently  brought  into  cultivation — no 
lands  where  the  bones  of  the  animals  fed  thereon 
have  been  allowed,  for  unnumbered  years  past,  to 
mingle  with  the  soil — can  be  equally  hungry  for 
Phosphates ;  and  I  doubt  that  any  cotton-field  in  the 
South  will  ever  return  an  outlay  of  even  $50  per  tun 
for  any  Phosphatic  fertilizer  whatever.  That  any 
preparation  of  Bone,  or  whereof  Bone  is  a  principal 
element,  will  increase  the  succeeding  crops,  is  un- 
doubted ;  but  that  it  will  ever  return  its  cost  and  a 
decent  margin  of  profit,  is  yet  to  be  demonstrated  to 
my  satisfaction. 


120  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

No  doubt,  there  are  special  cases  in  which  the  ap- 
plication even  of  Peruvian  Guano  at  $90  per  tun  is 
advisable.  A  compost  of  Muck,  Lime,  &c.,  equally 
efficient,  might  be  far  cheaper ;  but  months  would  be 
required  to  prepare  and  perfect  it,  and  meantime  the 
farmer  would  lose  his  crop,  or  fail  to  make  one.  If 
a  tun  of  Guano,  or  of  some  expensive  Phosphate, 
will  give  him  six  or  eight  acres  of  Clover  where  he 
would  otherwise  have  little  or  none,  and  he  needs 
that  Clover  to  feed  the  team  wherewith  he  is  break- 
ing up  and  fitting  his  farm  to  grow  a  good  crop  next 
year,  he  may  wisely  make  the  purchase  and  applica- 
tion, even  though  he  may  be  able  to  compost  for 
next  year's  use  twice  the  value  of  fertilizers  for  the 
precise  cost  of  this.  But  I  am  so  thorough  in  my 
devotion  to  "  home  industry,"  that  I  hold  him  an  un- 
skillful farmer  who  cannot,  nine  times  in  ten,  make, 
mainly  from  materials  to  be  found  on  or  near  his 
farm,  a  pile  of  compost  for  $100  that  will  add  more 
to  the  enduring  fertility  of  his  farm  than  anything 
he  can  bring  from  a  distance  at  a  cost  of  $150. 

Understand  that  this  is  a  general  rule,  and  subject, 
like  all  general  rules,  to  exceptions.  Gypsum,  I 
think  every  farmer  should  buy  ;  Lime  also,  if  his  soil 
needs  it ;  Phosphates  in  some  shape,  if  past  ignor- 
ance or  folly  has  allowed  that  soil  to  be  despoiled  of 
them ;  Wood  Ashes,  if  any  one  can  be  found  so 
brainless  as  to  sell  them ;  Marl,  of  course,  where  it  is 
found  within  ten  miles ;  Guano  very  rarely,  and 
mainly  when  something  is  needed  to  make  a  crop  be- 


BONES — PHOSPHATES — GUANO.  121 

fore  coarser  and  colder  fertilizers  can  be  brought  into 
a  condition  of  fitness  for  use ;  but  the  general  rule  I 
insist  on  is  this :  A  good  farmer  will,  in  the  course  of 
twenty  or  thirty  years,  make  at  least  $10  worth  of 
fertilizers  for  every  dollar's  worth  he  buys  from  any 
dealer,  unless  it  be  the  sweepings  or  other  excretions 
of  some  not  distant  city. 

I  have  used  Guano  frequently,  and,  though  it  has 
generally  made  its  mark,  I  never  yet  felt  sure  that  it 
returned  me  a  profit  over  its  cost.  Phosphates  have 
done  better,  especially  where  applied  to  Corn  in  the 
hill,  either  at  the  time  of  planting  or  later ;  yet  my 
strong  impression  is  that  Flour  of  Bone,  applied 
broadcast  and  freely,  especially  when  Wheat  or  Oats 
are  sown  on  a  field  that  is  to  be  laid  down  to  Grass, 
pays  better  and  more  surely  than  anything  else  I 
order  from  the  City,  Gypsum,  and  possibly  Oyster- 
Shell  Lime,  excepted. 

My  experience  can  be  no  safe  guide  for  others, 
since  it  is  not  proved  that  the  anterior  condition  and 
needs  of  their  soils  are  precisely  like  those  of  mine. 
I  apprehend  that  Guano  has  not  had  a  fair  trial  on 
my  place — that  carelessness  in  pulverizing  or  in  ap- 
plication has  caused  it  to  "  waste  its  sweetness  on  the 
desert  air,"  or  that  a  drouth  following  its  application 
has  prevented  the  due  development  of  its  virtues. 
And  still  my  impression  that  Guano  is  the  brandy  of 
vegetation,  supplying  to  plants  stimulus  rather  than 
nutrition,  is  so  clear  and  strong  that  it  may  not  easily 
be  effaced.  It  seems  to  me  plainly  absurd  to  send 
6 


122  WHAT    I    KNOW    OF    FARMING. 

ten  thousand  miles  for  this  stimulant,  when  this  or 
any  other  great  city  annually  poisons  its  own  atmos- 
phere and  the  adjacent  waters  with  excretions  which 
are  of  very  similar  character  and  value,  and  which 
Science  and  Capital  might  combine  to  utilize  at  less 
than  half  the  cost  of  like  elements  in  the  form  of 
Guano. 

My  object  in  this  paper  is  to  incite  experiment  and 
careful  observation.  'No  farmer  should  absolutely 
trust  aught  but  his  own  senses.  A  Rhode  Islander 
once  assured  m€  that  he  applied  to  four  acres  of  thin, 
slaty  gravel  one  hundred  pounds  per  acre  of  Nitrate 
of  Soda  which  cost  him  $4  per  hundred,  and  obtain- 
ed therefrom .  four  additional  tuns  of  good  Hay, 
worth  $15  per  tun  :  Net  profit  (after  allowing  for  the 
cost  of  making  the  Hay),  say  $30.  He  might  not  be 
so  fortunate  on  a  second  trial,  and  there  may  not  be 
another  four  acres  of  the  earth's  surface  where 
Nitrate  of  Soda  would  do  so  well ;  but,  should  I  ever 
have  a  fair  opportunity,  I  mean  to  see  what  a  little 
of  that  Nitrate  will  do  for  me.  And  I  hope  farmers 
may  more  and  more  be  induced  to  conform  in  prac- 
tice to  the  Apostolic  precept,  "Prove  all  things: 
Hold  fast  that  which  is  good."  No  one's  success  or 
failure  in  a  particular  instance  should  be  conclusive 
with  others,  because  of  the  infinite  diversity  of  ante- 
cedent and  attendant  circumstances ;  but  if  every 
thrifty  farmer  would  give  to  each  of  the  commercial 
fertilizers — Lime,  Gypsum,  Guano,  Raw  Bone,  Phos- 
phates, Ashes,  Salt,  Marl,  etc. — such  a  careful  trial 


BONES — PHOSPHATES — GUANO.         123 

as  he  might,  observing  closely  and  recording  carefully 
the  results,  we  should  soon  have  a  mass  of  facts  and 
results,  wherefrom  deductions  might  be  drawn  of 
signal  practical  value  to  the  present  and  to  future 
generations. 

I  firmly  believe  that  great  results  of  signal  benefi- 
cence are  to  be  slowly  but  surely  achieved  by  means 
of  the  household  convenience  known  as  the  Earth- 
Closet,  and  by  kindred  devices  for  rendering  inoffen- 
sive and  utilizing  the  most  powerful  fertilizer  pro- 
duced on  every  farm  and  in  every  household.  That 
is  a  vulgar  squeamishness  which  leaves  it  to  poison 
the  atmosphere  and  offend  the  senses  on  the 
assumption  that  it  -is  too  noisome  to  be  dealt  with  or 
utilized.  A  true  refinement  counsels  that  it  be  daily 
covered,  and  its  odor  absorbed  or  suppressed  by  earth, 
or  muck,  or  ashes,  and  thus  prepared  for  removal  to 
and  incorporation  with  the  soil.  It  is  far  within  the 
truth  to  estimate  our  National  loss  by  the  waste  of 
this  material  at  $1  per  head,  or  $40,000,000  in  all 
per  annum :  a  waste  which  is  steadily  diminishing 
the  productive  capacity  of  our  soil.  This  cannot, 
must  not,  be  allowed  to  continue.  We  must  devise 
or  adopt  some  mode  of  securing  and  applying  this 
powerful  fertilizer ;  and  I  defer  to  that  which  is  al- 
ready in  extensive  and  daily  expanding  use.  Let 
whoever  can  do  better ;  but  meantime  let  us  welcome 
and  diffuse  the  Earth  Closet. 


XXI. 

MUCK — HOW   TO   UTILIZE   IT. 

THE  time  will  be,  I  cannot  doubt,  when  chemists 
can  tell  us  the  exact  positive  or  relative  value  of  a 
cord  of  Muck — how  this  swamp  or  that  pond  affords 
a  choice  article,  while  the  product  of  another  will 
hardly  pay  for  digging.  There"  may  be  chemists 
whose  judgment  on  these  points  is  now  worth  far 
more  than  mine,  since  mine  is  worth  exactly  nothing. 
I  do  know,  however,  that  Muck  is  a  valuable  fer- 
tilizer, and  that  digging  and  composting  it  does  pay, 
I  judge  that  I  have  transferred  at  least  three  thou- 
sand loads  of  it  from  my  swamp  to  my  upland ;  and 
the  effect  has  been  all  that  I  expected.  Let  me 
speak  of  Muck  generally,  in  the  light  of  my  own  ex- 
perience. 

Wherever  rocks  in  ridges  come  to  the  surface  of  a 
valley,  plain,  or  gentle  slope,  water  is  apt  to  be  col- 
lected or  retained  by  them,  forming  ponds  or  shal- 
lower pools,  which  may  or  may  not  dry  up  in  Sum- 
mer, but  which  are  seldom  dry  late  in  Autumn,  when 
plants  are  dying  and  leaves  are  falling.  The  latter, 
caught  in  their  descent  by  the  harsh  winds  of  the 


MUCK — HOW   TO   UTILIZE   IT.  125 

season,  are  swept  along  the  bare,  dry  ground,  till 
they  strike  the  water,  which  arrests  their  progress 
and  soon  engulfs  them.  Thus  an  acre  of  watery  sur- 
face will  often  collect  and  retain  the  dead  foliage  of 
five  to  ten  acres  of  forest ;  and  next  Fall  will  render 
its  kindred  tribute,  and  the  next,  and  the  next,  for 
ever.  There  cannot  be  less  than  fifty  millions  of 
acres  of  Swamps  in  our  old  States  (including  Maine) ; 
whereof  I  presume  the  larger  area  was  covered  with 
water  until  the  slow  contributions  of  leaves  and 
weeds  filled  them  above  the  level  at  which  water  is 
no  longer  retained  on  the  surface.  And  still,  they 
are  so  moist  and  boggy,  and  their  rank  vegetation  is 
so  retentive,  that  the  leaves  swept  in  from  the  adja- 
cent hills  and  glades  are  firmly  retained  and  aid  to 
increase  the  depth  of  their  vegetable  mold,  which 
varies  from  a  few  inches  to  twenty  and  even  thirty 
feet.  In  my  old  County  of  Westchester,  I  roughly 
estimate  that  there  are  at  least  five  thousand  acres  of 
bog,  whereof  but  a  very  few  hundreds  have  yet  been 
subdued  to  the  uses  of  cultivation. 

Whoever  digs  a  quantity  of  Swamp  Muck  and  ap- 
plies it  directly  to  his  fields  or  garden,  will  derive 
little  or  no  immediate  benefit  therefrom.  It  is  green, 
sour,  cold,  and  more  likely  to  cover  his  farm  thickly 
and  persistently  with  Sorrel,  Eye-smart,  Hag- weed, 
Pursley,  and  other  infestations,  than  to  add  a  bushel 
per  acre  to  his  crop  of  Grain  or  Roots.  And  thus 
many  have  tried  Muck,  and,  on  trial,  pronounced  it 
a  pestilent  humbug. 


126  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAEMING. 

But  let  any  farmer  turn  liis  whole  force  into  a  bog 
or  marsh  directly  after  finishing  his  Summer  harvest 
(when  it  is  apt  to  be  driest  and  warmest),  and,  hav- 
ing freed  it  of  water  to  the  best  of  his  ability,  dig  and 
draw  out  one  hundred  cords  of  its  black,  oozy  sub- 
stance, and  he  will  know  better  than  to  unite  in  that 
hasty  judgment.  If  the  bog  be  near  his  farm -yard, 
let  the  Muck  be  shoveled  at  once  into  a  cart  and 
drawn  thither ;  but,  if  not,  let  it  be  simply  brought 
out  in  wheel-barrows  and  deposited,  not  more  than 
two  feet  deep,  on  the  most  convenient  bank  that  is 
well  drained  and  perfectly  dry.  Here  let  it  dry  and 
drain  till  after  Fall  harvest,  and  then  begin  to  draw 
it  gradually  into  the  yards,  and  especially  where  it 
may  be  worked  over  by  swine  and  scratched  over  for 
seeds  and  insects  by  fowls.  Assuming  that  the  farm- 
yard is  lowest  in  the  centre  and  allows  no  liquid  to 
escape  save  by  evaporation,  the  Muck  may  well  be 
dumped  on  the  drier  sides ;  thence,  after  being 
worked  over  and  trampled  through  and  through,  to 
be  shoveled  into  the  centre  and  replaced  by  fresh 
arrivals.  A  hundred  cords  may  thus  be  so  mixed  and 
ripened  as  to  be  fit  to  draw  out  next  May  and  used 
as  a  fertilizer  for  Grain  or  Roots,  though,  if  not  so 
treated,  it  should  h'e  exposed  to  sun  and  wind  a  full 
year ;  being  applied  in  the  Fall  to  crops  of  Winter 
grain  or  spread  upon  the  fields  to  be  planted  or  sow- 
ed next  Spring.  All  the  manure  made  during  the 
Winter  should  be  spread  over  that  which  lies  in  the 
yard  at  least  monthly ;  and  then  new  Muck  drawn  in, 


MUCK — HOW   TO   UTILIZE   IT.  127 

to  be  rooted  or  scratched  over,  trampled  into  the  un- 
derlying strata,  and  overspread  in  its  turn.  Thus 
treated,  I  am  confident  that  each  hundred  cords  of 
Muck  will  be  equal  in  value  to  an  equal  quantity  of 
manure,  though  it  may  not  give .  up  its  fertilizing 
properties  so  freely  to  the  first  crop  that  follows  its 
application.  I  have  land  that  did  not  yield  (in  pas- 
ture) the  equivalent  of  half  a  tun  of  hay  per  annum 
when  I  bought  it,  that  now  yields  at  least  three  tuns 
of  good  hay  per  annum  ;  and  its  renovation  is  mainly 
due  to  a  free  application  of  Swamp  Muck. 

To  those  who  have  a  good  stock  of  animals,  with 
Muck  convenient  to  their  yards,  I  would  not  recom- 
mend any  other  treatment  than  the  foregoing ;  but 
there  are  many  who  keep  few  animals,  or  whose 
muck-beds  lie  at  the  back  of  their  farms,  two  or  three 
hundred  rods  from  their  barns ;  while  they  wish  to 
fertilize  the  fields  in  this  quarter,  which  have  been 
slighted  in  former  applications,  because  of  the  dis- 
tance over  which  manure  had  to  be  hauled.  If  these 
possess  or  can  buy  good  hard-wood,  house-made  Ashes 
at  twenty-five  cents  or  less  per  bushel,  I  would  say, 
Mix  these  well,  at  the  rate  of  two  or  three  bushels  to 
the  c<#d,  with  your  Muck  as  you  dig  it ;  work  it  over 
the  next  Spring,  and  apply  it  the  ensuing  Fall,  so  as 
to  give  it  a  full  year  to  ripen  and  sweeten,  and  it  will 
be  all  right.  But,  if  you  have  not  and  cannot  get 
the  Ashes,  and  com  procure  dirty,  refuse  Salt  from 
some  meat-packer  or  wholesale  grocer,  apply  this  as 
yon  would  have  applied  the  Ashes,  but  in  rather 


128  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

larger  quantity ;  and,  if  you  can  get  neither  Ashes 
nor  Salt,  use  quick  Lime,  as  fresh  and  hot  from  the 
kiln  as  you  can  apply  it.  The  best  Lime  is  that  from 
burned  Oyster-Shells ;  I  consider  this,  if  nowise  slaked, 
nearly  equal  to  refuse  Salt ;  but  Oyster-Shell  Lime  is 
too  dear  at  most  inland  points ;  and  here  the  refuse 
of  the  kilns — that  which  is  not  good  enough  for 
mason-work  —  must  be  used.  Usually,  the  lime- 
burner  has  a  load  or  more  of  this  at  the  clearing 
out  of  every  kiln,  which  he  will  sell  quite  cheap  if  it 
be  taken  out  of  his  way  at  once ;  and  this  should  be 
looked  for  and  secured.  Being  inferior  in  quality 
(often  because  imperfectly  burned),  it  should  be  ap- 
plied in  larger  quantity — not  less  than  four  bushels 
.to  each  cord  of  Muck. 

I  will  not  here  describe  the  process  of  mixing  Salt 
with  Lime  commended  by  Prof.  Mapes,  because  it  is 
not  easy  to  bring  these  two  ingredients  together  so 
as  to  mix  them  with  the  Muck  as  it  is  dug :  and, 
though  I  have  used  them  after  Prof.  Mapes's  recipe, 
and  purpose  to  do  so  hereafter,  I  do  not  feel  certain 
that  any  positive  advantage  results  from  their  blended 
application  as  a  Chloride  of  Lime.  If  I  should*  gain 
further  light  on  this  point  before  completing  this 
series,  I  shall  not  fail  to  impart  it. 


XXII. 

INSECTS — BIKDS. 

IF  I  were  to  estimate  the  average  absolute  loss 
of  the  farmers  of  this  country  from  Insects  at 
$100,000,000  per  annum,  I  should  doubtless  be  far 
below  the  mark.  The  loss  of  fruit  alone  by  the  de- 
vastations of  insects,  within  a  radius  of  fifty  miles 
from  this  City,  must  amount  in  value  to  Millions.  In 
my  neighborhood,  the  Peach  once  flourished,  but 
flourishes  no  more,  and  Cherries  have  been  all  but 
annihilated.  Apples  were  till  lately  our  most  profit- 
able and  perhaps  our  most  important  product ;  but 
the  worms  take  half  our  average  crop  and  sadly 
damage  what  they  do  not.  utterly  destroy.  Plums 
we  have  ceased  to  grow  or  expect;  our  Pears  are 
generally  stung  and  often  blighted  ;  even  the  Currant 
has  at  last  its  fruit-destroying  worm.  We  must  fight 
our  paltry  adversaries  more  efficiently,  or  allow  them 
to  drive  us  wholly  from  the  field. 

Now,  I  have  no  doubt  that  our  best  allies  in  this 
inglorious  warfare  are  the  Birds.  They  would  save 
us,  if  we  did  not  destroy  them.  The  British  plowman, 
turning  his  sod  with  a  myriad  of  crows,  blackbirds, 

(129) 


130  WHAT  I   KNOW  OF   FARMING. 

etc.,  chasing  his  steps  and  all  but  getting  under  his 
feet  in  their  eager  quest  of  grubs,  bugs,  etc.,  is  a 
spectacle  to  be  devoutly  thankful  for.  Whenever 
clouds  of  birds  shall  habitually  darken  our  fields  in 
May  and  (less  notably)  throughout  the  Summer 
months,  we  may  reasonably  hope  to  grow  fair  crops 
of  our  favorite  Fruits  from  year  to  year,  and  realize 
that  we  owe  them  to  the  constant,  and  zealous, 
though  not  quite  disinterested,  efforts  of  our  friends, 
the  Birds. 

But  I  do  not  regard  the  ravages  of  Insects  as  en- 
tirely due  to  the  reckless  destruction  and  consequent 
scarcity  of  our  Birds.  I  hold  that  their  multiplica- 
tion and  their  devastations  are  largely  incited  by  the 
degeneracy  of  our  plants  caused  by  the  badness  of  our 
culture.  On  this  point,  consider  a  statement  made 
to  me,  some  fifteen  or  twenty  years  ago,  by  the  late 
Gov.  William  F.  Packer,  of  Pennsylvania : 

"I  know  (said  Gov.  P.)  the  narrow  valley  of  a 
stream  that  runs  into  the  west  branch  of  the  Susque- 
hanna,  which  was  cleared  of  the  primitive  forest 
some  forty  or  fifty  years  since,  and  has  ever  since 
been  alternately  in  tillage  and  grass.  A  road  ran 
through  the  middle  of  it,  dividing  it  into  two  narrow 
fields.  A  few  years  ago,  this  road  was  abandoned, 
and  the  whole  of  this  little  valley,  including  the 
road-way,  thrown  into  a  single  field,  which  was 
thereupon  sown  to  Wheat.  At  harvest-time,  this  re- 
markable phenomenon  was  presented  :  A  good  crop 
of  sound  grain  on  the  strip  four  or  five  rods  wide 


INSECTS — BEBDS.  131 

formerly  covered  by  the  road ;  while  nearly  every 
berry  on  either  side  of  it  was  destroyed  by  the  weevil 
or  midge." 

Now  I  do  not  infer  from  this  fact  that  insect 
ravages  are  wholly  due  to  our  abuse  and  exhaustion  of 
the  soil.  I  presume  that  Wheat  and  other  crops 
would  be  devastated  by  insects  if  there  were  no 
slovenly,  niggard,  exhausting  tillage.  But  I  do 
firmly  hold  that  at  least  half  our  losses  by  insects 
would  be  precluded  if  our  fields  were  habitually 
kept  in  better  heart  by  deep  culture,  liberal  fertili- 
zing, and  a  judicious  rotation  of  crops.  I  heard  little 
of  insect  ravages  in  the  wheat-fields  of  Western 
New- York  throughout  the  first  thirty  years  of  this 
century ;  but,  when  crop  after  crop  of  Wheat  had 
been  taken  from  the  same  fields  until  they  had  been 
well  nigh  exhausted  of  their  Wheat-forming  ele- 
ments, we  began  to  hear  of  the  desolation  wrought 
by  insects ;  and  those  ravages  increased  in  magni- 
tude until  Wheat-culture  had  to  be  abandoned  for 
years.  I  believe  that  we  should  have  heard  little  of 
insects  had  Wheat  been  grown  on  those  fields  but 
one  year  in  tliree  since  their  redemption  from  the 
primal  forest. 

But,  whatever  might  once  have  been,  the  Philis- 
tines are  upon  us.  We  are  doomed,  for  at  least  a 
generation,  to  wage  a  relentless  war  against  insects 
multiplied  beyond  reason  by  the  neglect  and  short- 
comings of  our  predecessors.  We  are  in  like  con- 
dition with  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  isles  a 


132  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

thousand  years  ago,  whose  forefathers  had  BO  long 
endured  and  so  unskillfully  resisted  invasion  and 
spoliation  by  the  Northmen  that  they  had  come  to 
be  regarded  as  the  sea-kings'  natural  prey.  For 
generations,  it  has  been  customary  hereabout  to 
slaughter  without  remorse  the  birds,  and  let  cater- 
pillars, worms,  grasshoppers,  etc.,  multiply  and  ravage 
unresisted.  We  must  pay  for  past  errors  by  present 
loss  and  years  of  extra  effort.  And,  precisely  because 
the  task  is  so  arduous,  we  ought  to  lose  no  time  in  ad- 
dressing ourselves  to  its  execution. 

The  first  step  to  be  taken  is  very  simple.  Let  every 
farmer  who  realizes  the  importance  and  beneficence 
of  Birds  teach  his  own  children  and  hirelings  that, 
except  the  Hawk,  they  are  to  be  spared,  protected, 
kindly  treated,  and  (when  necessary)  fed.  "  They  are 
to  be  valued  and  cherished  as  the  voluntary  police  of 
our  fields  and  gardens,  constantly  employed  in  fight- 
ing our  battles  against  our  ruthless  foes.  The  boy 
who  robs  a  bird's  nest  is  robbing  the  farmer  of  a 
part  of  his  crops.  He  who  traverses  a  farm  shooting 
and  mangling  its  feathered  sentinels  diminishes  its 
future  product  of  Grain  and  nearly  destroys  that  of 
Fruit.  The  farmer  might  as  well  consent  that  any 
strolling  ruflSan  should  shoot  his  Horses  or  Cattle  as 
his  Birds.  Begin  at  home  to  make  this  truth  felt 
and  respected,  and  it  will  be  the  easier  to  impress  it 
also  on  your  neighbors. 

Next,  there  should  be  neighborhood  or  township 
associations  for  the  protection  of  insect-eating  bir  Is. 


INSECTS — BIRDS.  133 

"We  must  not  merely  agree  to  let  them  live — we  must 
cherish  and  protect  them.  I  believe  that  very  sim- 
ple cups  or  bowls  of  cast-iron,  having  each  a  hole  in 
its  centre  of  suitable  size,  that  need  not  cost  six- 
pence each,  and  could  be  fastened  to  the  side  of  a 
tree  with  one  nail  lightly  driven,  would  in  time  be 
adopted  by  many  birds  as  nesting  strongholds,  whence 
they  might  laugh  to  scorn  their  predacious  enemies. 
If  every  harmless  bird  could  build  its  nest  among  us 
in  a  place  where  its  eggs  would  be  safe  from  hawks, 
crows,  cats,  boys,  and  other  robbers,  the  number  of 
such  birds  would  quickly  be  doubled  and  quadrupled. 
And  we  must  summon  the  law  to  our  aid.  Though 
law  can  do  little  or  nothing  against  stealthy,  skulk- 
ing nest-plunderers,  it  can  help  us  materially  in  our 
warfare  with  the  cowardly  vagabonds  who  traverse 
our  fields  with  musket  or  rifle,  blazing  away  at  every 
unsuspecting  robin  or  thrush  that  they  can  discover. 
Make  it  trespass,  punishable  with  fine  and  imprison- 
ment, to  shoot  on  another's  land  without  his  express 
permission,  and  the  cowardly  massacre  of  the  fanners' 
humble  allies  would  be  checked  at  once,  and,  when 
public  sentiment  had  been  properly  enlightened, 
might,  in  civilized  regions,  be  arrested  altogether. 


xxin. 

ABOUT  TKEE-PLANTING. 

I  HAVE  had  so  little  experience  in  Tree-Planting 
that  I  should  have  preferred  to  say  no  more  about  it ; 
but  letters  that  have  reached  me  imply  that  the 
ignorance  of  others  is  even  denser  than  mine.  For 
the  sake  of  those  only  who  are  conscious  that  they 
know  nothing,  yet  are  not  unwilling  to  learn,  I  ven- 
ture a  few  timid  suggestions  with  regard  to  Tree- 
Planting. 

I.  Ten  or  twelve  years  ago,  I  bought  a  pound  or 
more  of  Locust  seed  rather  late  in  the  Spring,  scalded 
it  by  plunging  for  a  moment  the  little  cotton  bag  which 
held  it  into  a  pot  of  boiling  water,  and  letting  the 
seed  steep  and  steam  in  the  bag  till  next  morning, 
when  the  seed  was  planted  in  rows  in  a  newly  broken 
bit  of  poor  old  pasture-land.  This  was  a  mistake ;  I 
should  have  given  that  seed  the  richest  available  spot 
in  my  garden,  to  say  nothing  of  planting  it  as  early  as 
April  20th.  My  locusts  came  up  slowly  and  grew 
feebly  that  year,  not  to  speak  of  the  many  seeds  that 
did  not  sprout  at  all.  Still  many  came  up  and  sur- 
vived, and  my  place  is  this  day  the  richer  for  them. 

('34) 


ABOUT  TREE-PLANTING,  135 

It  might  have  been  still  richer  had  I  seasonably 
known  more. 

II.  What  I  would  now  advise  as  to  Locust  and 
most  other  trees  is  that  the  best  seed  be  procured  in 
the  Fall,  or  so  soon  as  it  drops  from  the  trees  ;  that 
part  of  it  be  sown  in  drills,  two  feet  apart,  with  two 
inches  between  seeds  in  the  drills,  and  that  the  richest 
of  dry,  warm  garden-soil  be  devoted  to  this  purpose. 
Fill  a  large  box  with  rich  loam,  stir  four  ounces  of 
seed  into  this,  and  set  the  box  in  a  cool  cellar  where 
frost  does  not  enter,  and  here  let  it  remain  till  April ; 
then  take  out  the  seed  and  earth  together,  and  sow  in 
drills  as  above.     If  some  one  who  cuts  Locust  during 
the  Winter  or   Spring  will  allow  you  to  trace  the 
smaller  surface-roots  from  the  new-made  stumps  and 
cut  or  dig  them  up,  cut  fifty  or  a  hundred  pieces  of 
root  the  size  of  your  linger  each  two  feet  long,  and 
plant  these,  about  May  1,  in  the  places  where  you 
want  Locusts  to  come  forward  most  rapidly.     Some 
of  them  may  not  grow,  but  I  think  many  will ;  and} 
from  all  these  sources,  I  judge  that  you  will  obtain  a 
good  supply  of  young  trees.     Let  those  you  start  from 
the  seed  get  two  years'  growth  before  you  take  them 
up  and  set  them  where  you  want  trees,  whether  in 
your  present  woods,  in  rugged,  rocky  pastures,  on  the 
sides  of  steep  ravines,  or  around  your  buildings.  You 
cannot  fail  to  obtain  some  trees  if  you  follow  these 
directions. 

III.  Begin  early  this   Fall  to  gather   Chestnuts, 
Hickory  Nuts,  Walnuts,  White  Oak  Acorns,  etc.,  to 


136  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF  FARMING. 

plant.  Select  the  largest  and  finest  nuts,  giving  the 
preference  to  those  which  ripen  and  fall  earliest. 
Keep  them  in  cool,  damp  earth  in  some  barn  or  cellar 
where  rats  and  mice  cannot  reach  them,  and  persist 
in  collecting  till  December.  Then  plant  a  part  in 
your  garden  or  in  any  rich  ground  where  they  are  not 
likely  to  be  disturbed  ;  letting  the  residue  remain  in 
the  boxes  of  moist  earth  where  you  first  placed  them 
till  early  Spring;  then  plant  these,  like  the  former,  in 
rows  two  feet  apart,  with  six  inches  between  seed 
and  seed  in  each  row,  and  give  the  rows  careful  cul- 
ture for  two  years ;  after  which,  set  them  where  you 
wish  them  to  grow. 

I  venture  to  suggest  that  he  who  has  a  rugged, 
stony  hill  or  other  lot  which  he  wishes  to  surrender 
to  forest  should  plow  it,  if  it  can  be  plowed,  next 
September  or  October ;  if  too  rocky  to  be  even  im- 
perfectly plowed,  dig  up  the  earth  with  pick  and 
spade,  and  sow  it  thickly  with  hickory  nuts,  walnuts, 
chestnuts,  locust  and  other  tree-seeds,  expecting  that 
some  will  be  dug  up  and  carried  off  by  squirrels,  etc., 
and  that  others  will  fail  to  germinate.  Go  over  it 
with  hoes  the  ensuing  June  or  July,  killing  all  weeds 
and  other  infestations;  and,  nearly  a  year  later,  repeat 
the  operation,  taking  up  young  trees  from  your  gar- 
den or  nursery,  and  filling  them  in  wherever  there  is 
room.  Plant  thickly  in  order  to  force  an  upward 
rather  than  a  scraggy  growth  ;  and  so  that  you  may 
begin  to  cut  out  the  superfluous  saplings  for  bean- 
poles, hoop-poles,  etc.,  three  or  four  years  thereafter. 


ABOUT   TREE-PLANTING.  137 

Cut  late  in  Winter  or  early  in  Spring,  so  that  the 
stumps  will  each  throw  up  two  or  more  shoots  or 
sprouts,  which  usually  grow  much  faster  than  the 
original  tree  did.  And  the  process  of  thinning  may 
thus  be  continued  indefinitely,  while  the  choicer  trees 
are  allowed  to  attain  their  stateliest  proportions. 
And  thus  a  rocky,  sterile  hill-side  or  knoll  may  be 
made  to  yield  a  crop  annually  after  the  first  two  or 
three  years  from  planting,  while  growing  trees  of 
decided  value.  I  judge  that  almost  any  land  within 
fifty  miles  of  a  great  city  and  not  more  than  two 
miles  from  a  railroad  depot  or  from  navigable  water 
may  thus  be  made  to  earn  a  good  interest  on  $100 
per  acre,  after  meeting  all  the  cost  of  breaking  up 
and  planting.  I  confidently  assert  that  many  thou- 
sands of  sterile,  rocky  acres,  which  now  yield  less 
than  $5  per  acre  annually  in  pasturage,  would  net  at 
least  double  that  sum  to  the  owner  if  wisely  devoted 
to  forest-trees. 

I  have  a  hearty  love  of  forests.  They  proffer  gentle 
companionship  to  the  thoughtful  and  rest  to  the 
overworked,  fevered  brain.  Our  streams  will  be 
fuller  and  less  capricious,  our  gales  less  destructive, 
our  climate  more  equable,  when  we  shall  have  re- 
clothed  our  rugged  slopes  and  rocky  crests  with 
trees.  Timber  grows  yearly  scarcer  and  dearer,  when 
it  ought  to  be  becoming  more  plentiful  and  acces- 
sible, and  would  be  if  we  devoted  to  trees  all  the 
land  which  we  cultivate  at  a  loss  or  fail  to  cultivate 


138  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

at  all.  Let  our  boys  be  incited  to  gather  seeds  and 
plant  nurseries ;  let  young  trees  be  bought  by  the 
thousand  where  they  now  are  by  the  dozen,  and  let 
us  all  cooperate  in  covering  our  unsightly  rocks  and 
making  glad  our  waste  places  by  a  superabundance 
of  choice,  thrifty,  healthy  trees. 

Many  of  our  young  men  have  a  taste  for  adventure 
and  excitement  which  leads  them  to  the  ocean,  the 
mines,  to  Australia  or  some  other  far-off  land  recently 
and  scantily  peopled  by  civilized  beings.  I  will  not 
quarrel  with  their  taste ;  but  I  judge  that  there  are 
openings  for  their  enterprise  and  daring  within  the 
area  of  our  own  country.  Let  one  thousand  of  them 
resolve  to  devote  the  next  five  years  to  planting  for- 
ests on  the  treeless  plains  arid  virtual  deserts  of  the 
Great  Basin  and  on  either  side  of  it ;  let  them  select 
locations  where  some  acres  may  cheaply  and  surely 
be  irrigated,  and,  having  carefully  provided  them- 
selves with  an  abundance  of  the  best  seeds,  let  them 
start  patches  of  woodland  at  points  the  most  remote 
from  present  timber,  until  a  thousand  different  forests 
— one  to  each  of  the  associates-  -shall  have  been  started 
and  guarded  till  their  roots  have  taken  firm  hold  of 
the  earth.  I  presume  Congress  would  grant  them 
preemptions  to  each  section  on  which  they  thus 
planted  at  least  forty  acres  of  forest,  and  that  most  of 
these  preemption  rights  could,  within  ten  years,  be 
sold  to  settlers  for  many  times  their  original  cost. 


XXIV. 

FEUIT-TEEES THE   APPLE. 

IF  I  were  asked  to  say  what  single  aspect  of  our 
economic  condition  most  strikingly  and  favorably 
distinguished  the  people  of  our  Northern  States  from 
these  of  most  if  not  all  other  countries  which  I 
have  traversed,  I  would  point  at  once  to  the  fruit- 
trees  which  so  generally  diversify  every  little  as 
well  as  larger  farm  throughout  these  States,  and  are 
quite  commonly  found  even  on  the  petty  holdings  of 
the  poorer  mechanics  and  workmen  in  every  village 
and  in  the  suburbs  and  outskirts  of  every  city.  I 
can  recall  nothing  like  it  abroad,  save  in  two  or  three 
of  the  least  mountainous  and  most  fertile  districts  of 
northern  Switzerland.  Italy  has  some  approach  to  it 
in  the  venerable  olive-trees  which  surround  or  flank 
many,  perhaps  most,  of  her  farm-houses,  upholding 
grape-vines  as  ancient  and  nearly  as  large  as  them- 
selves ;  but  the  average  New-England  or  Middle 
State  homestead,  with  its  ample  Apple-orchard  and 
its  cluster  of  Pear,  Cherry  and  Plum-trees  surround- 
ing its  house  and  dotting  or  belting  its  garden,  has 
an  air  of  comfort  and  modest  thrift  which  I  have 

('39) 


140  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

nowhere  else  seen  fairly  equaled.  Upland  Virginia 
and  the  mountainous  portion  of  the  States  southward 
of  her  may  in  time  surpass  the  most  favored  regions 
of  the  North  in  the  abundance,  variety  and  excellence 
of  their  fruits  ;  for  the  Peach  and  the  Grape  find  here 
a  congenial  climate,  while  they  are  grown  with  diffi- 
culty, where  they  can  be  grown  at  all,  in  the  North  ; 
but,  up  to  this  hour,  I  judge  that  our  country  north 
of  the  Potomac  is  better  supplied  with  wholesome 
and  palatable  tree-fruits  than  any  other  portion  of 
the  earth's  surface  of  equal  or  nearly  equal  area. 

On  the  whole,  I  deem  it  a  misfortune  that  our 
Northern  States  were  so  admirably  adapted  to  the 
Apple  and  kindred  fruit-trees  that  our  pioneer  fore- 
fathers had  little  more  to  do  than  bury  the  seeds  in 
the  ground  and  wait  a  few  years  for  the  resulting 
fruit.  The  soil,  formed  of  decayed  trees  and  their 
foliage,  thickly  covered  with  the  ashes  of  the  primi- 
tive forest,  was  as  genial  as  soil  could  be ;  while  the 
remaining  woods,  which  still  covered  seven-eighths 
of  the  country,  shut  out  or  softened  the  cold  winds 
of  Winter  and  Spring,  rendering  it  less  difficult,  a 
century  ago,  to  grow  fine  peaches  in  southern  New- 
Hampshire  than  it  now  is  in  southern  New- York. 
Devastating  insects  were  precluded  by  those  great, 
dense  woods  from  diffusing  themselves  from  orchard 
to  orchard  as  they  now  do.  Snows  fell  more  heavily 
and  lay  longer  then  than  now,  protecting  the  roots 
from  heavy  frosts,  and  keeping  back  buds  and  blos- 
soms in  Spring,  to  the  signal  advantage  of  the  husband- 


FKUTT-TEEES THE   APPLE.  141 

man.  I  estimate  that  my  apple-trees  would  bear  at  least 
one-third  more  fruit  if  I  could  retard  their  blossom- 
ing a  fortnight,  so  as  to  avoid  the  cold  rains  and  cut- 
ting winds,  often  succeeded  by  frosts,  which  are  apt 
to  pay  their  unwelcome  farewell  visits  just  when  my 
trees  are  in  bloom  or  when  the  fruit  is  forming  di- 
rectly thereafter.  Hence,  I  say  to  every  one  who 
shall  hereafter  set  an  orchard,  Give  it  the  northward 
slope  of  a  hill  if  that  be  possible.  Other  things  being 
equal,  the  orchard  which  blossoms  latest  will,  in  a 
series  of  years,  yield  most  fruit,  and  will  be  most 
likely  to  bear  when  the  Apple -crop  of  your  vicinity 
proves  a  failure.  I  do  not  recommend  storing  ice  to 
plant  or  bury  under  the  trees  in  April,  for  that  in- 
volves too  much  labor  and  expense ;  yet  I  have  no 
doubt  that  even  that  has  been  and  sometimes  might 
be  done  with  profit.  In  the  average,  however,  I 
judge  that  it  would  not  pay. 

In  locating  and  setting  an  orchard,  the  very  first 
consideration  is  thorough  drainage.  Nothing  short 
of  a  destructive  fire  can  be  more  injurious  to  an 
apple-tree  than  compelling  it  to  stand  throughout 
Winter  and  Spring  in  sour,  stagnant  water.  Bar- 
renness, dead  branches,  and  premature  general  decay, 
are  the  natural  and  righteous  consequences  of  such 
crying  abuse.  There  are  many  reasons  for  choosing 
sloping  or  broken  ground  for  an  apple-orchard,  where- 
of comparative  exemption  from  frost  and  natural  fa- 
cility of  drainage  are  the  most  obvious.  A  level  field, 
thoroughly  undrained  to-day,  may,  through  neglect 


142  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

and  the  mischiefs  wrought  by  burrowing  animals, 
have  become  little  better  than  a  morass  thirty  years 
hence  ;  but  an  orchard  set  on  a  tolerably  steep  hill- 
side is  reasonably  secure  against  wet  feet  to  the 
close  of  its  natural  life. 

A  gravelly  or  sandy  loam  is  generally  preferred  for 
orchards;  yet  I  have  known  them  to  nourish  and 
bear  generously  on  heavy  clay.  Whoever  has  a 
gravelly  field  will  wisely  prefer  this  for  Apples,  not 
merely  to  clay  but  to  sand  as  well. 

And,  while  many  young  orchards  have  doubtless 
been  injured  by  immoderate  applications  of  rank, 
green  manures,  I  doubt  that  any  man  has  ever  yet 
bestowed  too  much  care  and  expense  on  the  prepa- 
ration of  his  ground  for  fruit-trees.  "Where  ridges  or 
plateaus  of  fast  stone  do  not  forbid,  I  would  say, 
Turn  over  the  soil  to  a  depth  of  at  least  fifteen 
inches  with  a  large  plow  and  a  strong  team  ;  then 
lift  and  pulverize  the  subsoil  to  a  depth  of  not  less 
than  nine  inches  ;  apply  all  the  Wood-ashes  you  can 
get,  with  one  thousand  bushels  of  Marl  if  you  are  in 
a  Marl  region  ;  if  not,  use  instead  from  thirty  to  fifty 
bushels  of  quick  Lime  (oyster-shell  if  that  is  to  be 
had)  with  one  hundred  loads  per  acre  of  Swamp 
Muck  which  has  lain  a  year  on  dry  upland,  baking 
in  the  sun  and  wind ;  and  now  you  may  think  of  set- 
ting your  trees.  If  your  soil  was  rich  Western  prairie 
or  Middle-State  garden  to  begin  with,  you  can 
dispense  with  all  these  fertilizers ;  yet  I  doubt  that 
there  is  an  acre  of  Western  prairie  that  would  not  be 


FRUIT-TREES THE   APPLE.  143 

improved  by  the  Lime  or  (perhaps  better  still)  a 
smaller  quantity  of  refuse  Salt  from  a  packing-house 
or  meat  retailing  grocery.  There  are  not  many 
farms  that  would  not  repay  the  application  of  five 
bushels  per  acre  of  refuse  Salt  at  twenty-five  cents 
per  bushel. 

Your  trees  once  set — (and  he  who  sets  twenty  trees 
per  day  as  they  should  be  set,  with  each  root  in  its 
natural  position,  and  the  earth  pressed  firmly  around 
its  trunk,  but  no  higher  than  as  it  originally  grew,  is 
a  faithful,  efficient  worker),  I  would  cultivate  the 
land,  (for  the  trees'  sake),  growing  crops  successively 
of  Ruta  Bagas,  Carrots,  Beets,  and  early  Potatoes, 
but  no  grain  whatever,  for  six  or  seven  years,  dis- 
turbing the  roots  of  the  trees  as  little  as  may  be,  and 
guarding  their  trunks  from  tug,  or  trace,  or  whiffle- 
tree,  by  three  stakes  set  firmly  in  the  ground  about 
each  tree,  not  so  near  it  as  to  preclude  constant  culti- 
vation with  the  hoe  inside  as  well  as  outside  of  the 
stakes,  so  as  to  let  no  weed  mature  in  the  field.  Ap- 
ply from  year  to  year  well-rotted  compost  to  the  field 
in  quantity  sufficient  fully  to  counterbalance  the  an- 
nual abstraction  by  your  crops.  Make  it  a  law  in- 
flexible and  relentless  that  no  animal  s'lall  be  let 
into  this  orchard  to  forage,  or  for  any  purpose  what- 
ever but  to  draw  on  manures,  to  till  the  soil,  and  to 
draw  away  the  crops.  Thus  until  the  first  blossoms 
begin  to  appear  on  the  trees ;  then  lay  down  to  grass 
witJiout  grain,  unless  it  be  a  crop  of  Hye  or  Oats  to  be 
cut  and  carried  off  for  feed  when  not  more  than  half 


144  WHAT  I   KNOW   OF   FABMING. 

grown,  leaving  the  ground  to  the  young  grass.  Let 
the  grass  be  mowecl/or  the  next  two  or  three  years,  and 
thenceforward  devote  it  to  the  pasturage  of  Swine, 
running  over  it  with  a  scythe  once  or  twice  each  Sum- 
mer to  clear  it  of  weeds,  and  taking  out  the  Swine  a 
few  days  before  beginning  to  gather  the  Apples,  but 
putting  them  back  again  the  day  after  the  harvest  is 
completed.  Let  the  Swine  be  sufficiently  numerous 
and  hungry  to  eat  every  apple  that  falls  within  a  few 
hours  after  it  is  dropped,  and  to  insure  their  rooting 
out  every  grub  or  worm  that  burrows  in  the  earth 
beneath  the  trees,  ready  to  spring  up  and  apply  him- 
self to  mischief  at  the  very  season  when  you  could 
best  excuse  his  absence.  I  do  not  commend  this  as 
all,  or  nearly  all,  that  should  be  done  in  resistance  to 
the  pest  of  insect  ravage  ;  but  I  begin  with  the  Hog 
as  the  orchardist's  readiest,  cheapest,  most  effective 
ally  or  servitor  in  the  warfare  he  is  doomed  unceas- 
ingly to  wage  against  the  spoilers  of  his  heritage.  I 
will  indicate  some  further  defensive  enginery  in  my 
next  chapter. 


XXV. 

MORE   ABOUT   APPLE-TREES. 

IN  my  opinion,  Apple-trees,  in  most  orchards,  are 
planted  too  for  apart  and  allowed  to  grow  taller  and 
spread  their  limbs  more  widely  than  is  profitable.  I 
judge  that  a  primer  or  picker  should  be  able  to  reach 
the  topmost  twig  of  any  tree  with  a  ten-foot  pole, 
and  that  no  limb  should  be  allowed  to  extend  more 
than  eight  feet  from  the  trunk  whence  it  springs. 
Our  Autumnal  Equinox  occurs  before  our  Apples  are 
generally  ripe  for  harvest,  and,  finding  our  best  trees 
bending  under  a  heavy  burden  of  fruit,  its  fierce  gales 
are  apt  to  make  bad  work  with  trees  as  well  as  ap- 
ples. The  best  tree  I  had,  with  several  others,  was 
thus  ruined  by  an  equinoctial  tempest  a  few  years 
since.  Barren  trees  escape  unharmed,  while  those 
heavily  laden  with  large  fruit  are  wrenched  and 
twisted  into  fragments.  And,  even  apart  from  this 
peril,  a  hundred  weight  of  fruit  at  or  near  the  ex- 
tremity of  limbs  which  extend  ten  or  twelve  feet 
horizontally  from  the  trunk,  tax  and  strain  a  tree 
more  than  four  times  that  weight  growing  within 
four  or  five  feet  of  the  trunk,  and  on  limbs  that 
maintain  a  semi-erect  position.  I  diffidently  sug- 
7  (HS) 


14:6  WHAT    I    KNOW    OF    FAKMESTG. 

gest,  therefore,  that  no  apple-tree  be  allowed  to  ex- 
ceed fifteen  feet  in  hi-ght,  nor  to  send  a  limb  more 
than  eight  feet  from  its  trunk,  and  that  trees  be  set 
(diamond-fashion)  twenty-four  feet  apart  each  way, 
instead  of  thirty-two,  as  some  of  mine  were.  I  judge 
that  the  larger  number  of  trees  (72  per  acre)  will  pro- 
duce more  fruit  in  the  average  than  the  larger  but 
fewer  trees  grown  on  squares  of  two  by  two  rods  to 
each,  that  they  will  thrive  and  bear  longer,  and  that 
not  one  will  be  destroyed  or  seriously  harmed  by 
winds  where  a  dozen  would  if  allowed  to  grow  as 
high  and  spread  as  far  as  they  could. 


Every  apple-tree  should  be  pruned  each  year  of 
its  life :  that  is,  it  should  be  carefully  examined  with 
intent  to  prune  if  that  be  found  necessary.  It  should 
be  pruned  with  a  careful  eye  to  giving  it  the  proper 
shape,  which,  from  the  point  where  it  first  forks  up- 
ward, should  be  that  of  a  tea-cup,  very  nearly.  I 
have  seen  young  trees  so  malformed  that  they  could 
rarely,  if  ever, bear  fruit  enough  to  render  them  profit- 
able. And  the  pruning  should  be  so  carefully,  judi- 
ciously done  from  the  outset  that  no  wood  two  years 
old  should  ever  be  cut  away.  With  old,  malformed, 
diseased,  worm-eaten,  decaying  trees,  the  best  must 
be  done  that  can  be ;  but  he  who,  pruning  a  tree  that 
he  set  and  has  hitherto  cared  for,  finds  himself  ob- 
liged to  cut  off  a  limb  thicker  than  his  thumb,  may 
justly  suspect  himself  of  lacking  a  mastery  of  the  art 
of  fruit-growing. 


MORE   ABOUT   APPLE-TREES.  147 

Sprouts  from  the  root  of  an  apple-tree  remind  me 
of  children  who  habitually  play  truant  or  are  kept 
out  of  school.  They  not  merely  can  never  come  to 
good,  but  they  are  a  nuisance  to  the  neighborhood 
and  bring  reproach  on  the  community. 

The  apple-grower  should  never  forget  that  every 
producer  needs  to  be  fed  in  proportion  to  his  product. 
If  a  cow  gives  twenty  quarts  of  milk  per  day,  she 
needs  more  grass  or  other  food  than  if  she  gave  but 
two  quarts ;  and  an  acre  of  orchard  that  yields  a 
hundred  barrels  of  Apples  per  annum  needs  some- 
thing given  to  the  soil  to  balance  the  draft  made 
upon  it.  Nature  offers  us  good  bargains;  but  she 
does  not  trust  and  will  not  be  cheated.  "When  she 
offers  a  bushel  of  Corn  for  a  bushel  of  dirty  Salt, 
Shell  Lime,  or  Wood-Ashes,  a  load  of  Hay  for  a 
load  of  Muck,  we  ought  not  to  stint  the  measure, 
but  pay  her  demand  ungrudgingly. 


And  now  a  last  word  on  Insects. 

My  township  (Newcastle)  is  said  to  have  formerly 
grown  more  Apples  per  annum  than  any  other  town- 
ship in  the  United  States ;  its  apple-trees  are  still  as 
numerous  as  ever,  but  their  product  has  fallen  off 
deplorably.  I  estimate  the  average  yield  of  the  last 
three  years  at  less  than  a  bushel  per  annum  for  each 
full-grown  tree  ;  I  think  a  majority  of  the  trees  have 
not  borne  a  bushel  each  in  all  these  three  years.  Un- 
seasonable frosts,  storms,  etc.,  have  borne  the  blame 
of  this  barrenness — perhaps  justly,  if  we  consider 


148  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAKMING. 

only  immediate  causes — but  the  caterpillar  and  other 
vermin  are,  in  my  view,  our  more  potent,  though 
remoter,  afflictions.  Not  less  than  four  times  within 
the  last  sixteen  years  have  our  trees  been  covered 
with  nests  and  worms ;  and  I  have  seen  whole  or- 
chards stripped  of  nearly  every  leaf  till  they  were 
as  bare  (of  every  thing  but  caterpillars)  in  July  as 
they  should  have  been  in  December.  After  the 
scourge  had  passed,  the  trees  reclad  themselves  with 
leaves  ;  but  they  grew  old  under  that  visitation  faster 
in  one  year  than  they  would  have  done  in  ten  of 
healthful  fruit-bearing;  and  they  are  now  prema- 
turely gray  and  moss-covered  because  of  the  terrible 
infliction. 

I  lay  down  the  general  proposition  that  no  man 
who  harbors  caterpillars  has  any  moral  right  to 
Apples — that  each  grower  should  be  required  to 
make  his  choice  between  them.  Slovenly  farmers 
say,  "  O  there  are  so  many  of  them  that  I  cannot  kill 
half  so  fast  as  they  multiply."  Then  I  say,  cut  down 
and  burn  up  the  trees  you  can  best  spare,  until  you 
have  no  more  left  than  you  can  keep  clear  of  worms. 

If  it  were  the  law  of  the  land  that  whoever  allowed 
caterpillars  to  nest  and  breed  in  his  fruit-trees  should 
pay  a  heavy  fine  for  each  nest,  we  should  soon  be 
comparatively  clear  of  the  scourges.  In  the  absence 
of  such  salutary  regulation,  one  man  fights  them 
with  persistent  resolution,  only  to  see  his  orchard 
again  and  again  invaded  and  ravaged  by  the  pests 
hatched  and  harbored  by  his  careless  neighbors.  He 


MORE   ABOUT   APPLE-TREES.  14:9 

thus  pays  and  repays  the  penalty  of  others'  negli- 
gence and  misdoing  until,  discouraged  and  demoral- 
ized, he  abandons  the  hopeless  struggle,  and  thence- 
forth repels  the  enemy  from  a  few  favorite  trees 
around,  his  dwelling,  and  surrenders  his  orchard  to 
its  fate.  Thus  bad  laws  (or  no  laws)  are  constantly 
making  bad  farmers.  The  birds  that  would  help  us 
to  make  head  against  our  insect  foes  are  slaughtered 
by  reckless  boys — many  of  them  big  enough  to  know 
better— and  our  perils  and  losses  from  enemies  who 
would  be  contemptible  if  their  numbers  did  not 
render  them  formidable  increase  from  year  to  year. 
We  must  change  all  this ;  and  the  first  requisite  of 
our  situation  is  a  firm  alliance  of  the  entire  farming 
and  fruit-growing  interest  defensive  as  to  birds,  offen- 
sive toward  their  destroyers,  and  toward  the  vermin 
multiplied  and  shielded  by  the  ruthless  massacre  of 
our  feathered  friends. 

Since  the  foregoing  was  written  we  have  had 
(in  1870)  the  greatest  Apple-crop  throughout  our 
section  that  mine  eyes  did  ever  yet  behold.  It  was 
so  abundant  that  I  could  not  sell  all  my  cider-apples 
to  the  vinegar-makers,  even  at  fifty  cents  per  barrel. 
This  establishes  the  continued  capacity  of  our  region 
to  bear  Apples,  and  should  invite  to  the  planting  of 
new  orchards  and  the  fertilization  and  renovation  of 
old  ones.  • 


XXYI. 

HAT   AND   HAT-MAKING. 

THE  Grass-crop  of  this,  as  of  many,  if  not  most, 
other  countries,  is  undoubtedly  the  most  important 
of  its  annual  products ;  requiring  by  far  the  largest 
area  of  its  soil,  and  furnishing  the  principal  food  of 
its  Cattle,  and  thus  contributing  essentially  to  the 
subsistence  of  its  working  animals  and  to  the  pro- 
duction of  those  Meats  which  form  a  large  and  con- 
stantly increasing  proportion  of  the  food  of  every 
civilized  people.  But  I  propose  to  speak  in  this  es- 
say of  that  proportion  of  the  Grass-crop — say  25  to  35 
per  cent,  of  the  whole — which  is  cut,  cured  and 
housed  (or  stacked)  for  Hay,  and  which  is  mainly  fed 
out  to  animals  in  Winter  and  Spring,  when  frost  and 
snow  have  divested  the  earth  of  herbage  or  rendered 
it  inaccessible. 

The  Seventh  Census  (1 850)  returned  the  Hay-crop 
of  the  preceding  year  at  1 3,838,642  tuns,  which  the 
Eighth  Census  increased  to  19,129,128  tuns  as  the 
product  of1  1859.  Confidant  that  most  farmers  un- 
der-estimate  their  Hay-crops,  and  that  hundreds  of 
thousands  who  do  not  consider  themselves  farmers, 
tmt  who  own  or  rent  little  homesteads  of  two  to  ten 
('5°) 


HAY    AND   HAY-MAKING.  151 

acres  each,  keeping  thereon  a  cow  or  two  and  often 
a  horse,  fail  to  make  returns  of  the  two  to  five  tuns 
of  Hay  they  annually  produce,  considering  them  too 
trivial,  I  estimate  the  actual  Hay-crop  of  all  our 
States  and  Territories  for  the  current  year  at 
40,000,000  tuns, or  about  a  tun  to  each  inhabitant,  al- 
though I  do  not  expect  the  new  Census  to  place  it 
much,  if  any,  above  25,000,000  tuns.  The  estimated 
average  value  of  this  crop  is  $10  (gold)  per  tun, 
making  its  aggregate  value,  at  my  estimate  of  its 
amount,  $400,000,000  —  and  the  quantity  is  con- 
stantly and  rapidly  increasing. 

That  quantity  should  be  larger  from  the  area  de- 
voted to  meadows,  and  the  quality  a  great  deal 
better.  I  estimate  that  30,000,000  acres  are  annually 
mowed  to  obtain  these  40,000,000  tuns  of  Hay,  giving 
an  average  yield  of  1£  tuns  per  acre,  while  the  average 
should  certainly  not  fall  below  two  tuns  per  acre. 
My  upland  lias  a  gravelly,  rocky  soil,  not  natural  to 
grass,  and  had  been  pastured  to  death  for  at  least  a 
century  before  I  bought  it ;  yet  it  has  yielded  me  an 
average  of  not  less  than  2£  tuns  to  the  acre  for  the 
last  sixteen  years,  and  will  not  yield  less  while  I  am 
allowed  to  farm  it.  My  lowland  (bog  when  I  bought 
it)  is  bound  henceforth  to  yield  more ;  but,  while  im- 
perfectly or  not  at  all  drained,  it  was  of  course  a 
poor  reliance — yielding  bounteously  in  spots,  in  others, 
little  or  nothing. 

In  nothing  else  is  shiftless,  slovenly  farming  so  apt 
t<  betray  itself  as  in  the  culture  of  Grass  and  the 


352  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

management  of  grass  lands.  Pastures  overgrown 
with  bushes  and  chequered  by  quaking,  miry  bogs ; 
meadows  foul  with  every  weed,  from  white  daisy  up 
to  the  rankest  brakes,  with  hill-sides  that  may  once 
have  been  productive,  but  from  which  crop  after 
crop  has  been  taken  and  nothing  returned  to  them, 
until  their  yield  has  shrunk  to  half  or  three- fourths 
of  a  tun  of  poor  hay,  these  are  the  average  indications 
of  a  farm  nearly  run  out  by  the  poorest  sort  of  farm- 
ing. Such  farms  were  common  in  the  !N~ew  England 
of  my  boyhood ;  I  trust  they  are  less  so  to-day ;  yet 
I  seldom  travel  ten  miles  in  any  region  north  or  east 
of  the  Delaware  without  seeing  one  or  more  of  them. 

Fifty  years  ago,  I  judge  that  the  greater  part  of 
the  hay  made  in  New-England  was  cut  from  sour, 
boggy  land,  that  was  devoted  to  grass  simply  because 
nothing  else  could  be  done  with  it.  I  have  helped  to 
carry  the  crop  off  on  poles  from  considerable  tracts  on 
which  oxen  could  not  venture  without  miring.  It  were 
superfluous  to  add  that  no  well-bred  animal  would 
eat  such  stuff,  unless  the  choice  were  between  it  and 
absolute  starvation.  In  many  cases,  a  very  little  work 
done  in  opening  the  rudest  surface-drains  would  have 
transformed  these  bogs  into  decent  meadows,  and  the 
product,  by  the  help  of  plowing  or  seeding,  into  un- 
exceptionable hay. 

There  are  not  many  farmers,  apart  from  our  wise 
and  skillful  dairymen,  who  use  half  enough  grass- 
seed  ;  men  otherwise  thrifty  often  fail  in  this  respect. 
If  half  our  ordinary  faVmers  would  thoroughly  seed 


HAY   AND    HAY-MAKING.  153 

down  a  full  third  of  the  area  they  usually  cultivate, 
and  devote  to  the  residue  the  time  and  efforts  they 
now  give  to  the  whole,  they  would  grow  more  grain 
and  vegetables,  while  the  additional  grass  would  be 
so  much  clear  again. 

We  sow  almost  exclusively  Timothy  and  Clover, 
when  there  are  at  least  20  different  grasses  required 
by  our  great  diversity  of  soils,  and  of  these  three  or 
four  might  often  be  sown  together  with  profit;,  es- 
pecially in  seeding  down  fields  intended  for  pasture, 
we  might  advantageously  use  a  greater  variety  and 
abundance  of  seed.  I  believe  that  there  are  grasses 
not  yet  adopted  and  hardly  recognized  by  the  great 
body  of  our  farmers — the  buffalo-grass  of  the  prairies 
for  one — that  will  yet  be  grown  and  prized  over  a  great 
part  of  our  country. 

As  for  Hay-Making,  my  conviction  is  strong  that 
our  grass  is  cut  in  the  average  from  two  to  three 
weeks  too  late,  and  that  not  only  is  our  hay  greatly 
damaged  thereby,  but  our  meadows  needlessly  im- 
poverished and  exhausted.  The  formation  and  per- 
fection of  seed  always  draw  heavily  upon  the  soil. 
A  crop  of  grass  cut  when  the  earliest  blossoms  begin 
to  drop — which,  in  my  judgment,  is  the  only  right 
time — will  not  impoverish  the  soil  half  so  much  as 
will  the  same  crop  cut  three  weeks  later;  while  the 
roots  of  the  earlier  cut  grass  will  retain  their  vitality 
at  least  thrice  as  long  as  though  half  the  seed  had 
ripened  before  the  crop  was  harvested.  Grass  that 
was  fully  ripe  when  cut  has  lost  at  least  half  its  nutri- 
7* 


154  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

merit,  which  no  chemistry  can  ever  restore.  Hay 
alone  is  dry  fodder  for  a  long  Winter,  especially  for 
young  stock;  but  hay  cut  after  it  was  dead  ripe,  is 
proper  nutriment  for  no  animal  whatever — not  even 
for  old  horses,  who  are  popularly  supposed  to  like  and 
thrive  upon  it. 

The  fact  that  our  farmers  are  too  generally  short- 
handed  throughout  the  season  of  the  Summer  harvest, 
while  it  seems  to  explain  the  error  I  combat,  renders 
it  none  the  less  disastrous  and  deplorable.  I  estimate 
the  depreciation  in  the  value  of  our  hay-crop,  by 
reason  of  late  cutting,  as  not  less  than  one-fifth ;  and, 
when  we  consider  that  a  full  half  of  our  farmers  turn 
out  their  cattle  to  ravage  and  poach  up  their  fields  in 
quest  of  fodder  a  full  month  earlier  than  they  should, 
because  their  hay  is  nearly  or  quite  exhausted,  the 
consequences  of  this  error  are  seen  to  diffuse  them- 
selves over  the  whole  economy  of  the  farm. 


From  the  hour  in  which  grass  falls  under  the  Mower, 
it  ought  to  be  kept  in  motion  until  laid  at  rest  in  the 
stack  or  the  barn ;  keep  stirring  it  with  the  tedder  until 
it  is  ready  to  be  raked  into  light  winrows,  and  turn 
these  over  and  over  until  they  will  answer  to  go  upon 
the  cart.  In  any  bright,  hot  day,  the  grass  mowed  in 
the  morning  should  be  stacked  before  the  dew  falls 
at  night ;  while,  if  any  is  mowed  after  noon,  it  should 
be  cocked  and  capped  by  sunset,  even  though  it  be 
necessary  to  open  it  out  the  next  fair  morning. 

I  have  a  dream  of  hay-making,  especially  with  re- 


HAY    AND    HAY-MAKING.  155 

gard  to  clover,  without  allowing  it  to  be  scalded  by 
fierce  sunshine.  In  my  dream,  the  grass  is  raked  and 
loaded  nearly  as  fast  as  cut,  drawn  to  the  barn-yard, 
and  there  pitched  upon  an  endless  apron,  on  which  it 
is  carried  slowly  through  a  drying-house,  heated  to 
some  200°  Fahrenheit  by  steam  or  by  charcoal  in  a 
furnace  below,  somewhat  after  the  manner  of  a  hop- 
kiln.  While  passing  slowly  through  this  heated 
atmosphere,  the  grass  is  continually  forked  up  and 
shaken  so  as  to  expose  every  lock  of  it  to  the  drying 
heat,  until  it  passes  off  thereby  deprived  of  its  moisture 
and  is  precipitated  into  a  mow  or  upon  a  stack-bottom 
at  the  opposite  side ;  load  after  load  being  pitched  upon 
the  apron  continuously,  and  the  drying  process  going 
steadily  forward  by  night  as  well  as  by  day,  and  with- 
out regard  to  the  weather  outside.  I  do  not  assert 
that  this  vision  will  ever  be  realized ;  but  I  have 
known  dreams  as  wild  as  this  transformed  by  time 
and  thought  into  beneficent  realities. 

I  ask  no  one  to  share  my  dreams  or  sympathise 
with  their  drift  and  purpose.  I  only  insist  that  Hay- 
making, as  it  is  managed  all  around  me,  is  ruder  in 
its  processes  and  more  uncertain  in  its  results  than  it 
should  or  need  be.  "We  cut  our  grass  rapidly  and 
well ;  we  gather  and  house  it  with  tolerable  efficiency ; 
but  we  cure  much  of  it  imperfectly  and  wastefully. 
The  fact  that  most  of  it  is  over-ripe  when  cut  aggra- 
vates the  pernicious  effects  of  its  subsequent  exposure 
to  dew  and  rain ;  and  the  net  result  is  damaged  fod- 
der which  is  at  once  unpalatable  and  innutritious. 


XXYII. 

PEACHES — PEAKS CHERRIES — GRAPES. 

OUR  harsh,  capricious  climate  north  of  the  lati- 
tudes of  Philadelphia,  Cincinnati,  and  St.  Louis — so 
much  severer  than  that  of  corresponding  latitudes 
in  Europe — is  unfavorable,  or  at  least  very  trying,  to 
all  the  more  delicate  and  luscious  Fruits,  berries  ex- 
cepted.  Except  on  our  Pacific  coast,  of  which  the 
Winter  temperature  is  at  least  ten  degrees  milder 
than  that  of  the  Atlantic,  the  finer  Peaches  and 
Grapes  are  grown  with  difficulty  north  of  the  for- 
tieth degree  of  latitude,  save  in  a  few  specially  fa- 
vored localities,  whereof  the  southern  shore  of  Lake 
Erie  is  most  noted,  though  part  of  that  of  Lake  On- 
tario and  of  the  west  coast  of  Lake  Michigan  are 
likewise  well  adapted  to  the  Peach. 

It  is  not  the  mere  fact  that  the  mercury  in  Fahren- 
heit's thermometer  sometimes  ranges  below  zero,  and 
the  earth  is  deeply  frozen,  but  the  suddenness  where- 
with such  rigor  succeeds  and  is  succeeded  by  a  tem- 
perature above  the  freezing  point,  that  proves  so  in- 
hospitable to  the  most  valued  Tree-Fruits.  And,  as 
the  dense  forests  which  formerly  clothed  the  Alle- 
(156) 


PEACHES — PEAKS — CHERRIES — GRAPES.    157 

ghenies  and  the  Atlantic  slope,  are  year  by  year 
swept  away,  the  severity  of  our  "  cold  snaps,"  and 
the  celerity  with  which  they  appear  and  disappear, 
are  constantly  aggravated.  A  change  of  60°,  or 
from  50°  above  to  10°  below  zero,  between  morning 
and  the  following  midnight,  soon  followed  by  an 
equally  rapid  return  to  an  average  November  tem- 
perature, often  proves  fatal  even  to  hardy  forest-trees. 
I  have  had  the  Ked  Cedar  in  my  woods  killed  by 
scores  during  an  open,  capricious  Winter ;  and  my 
observation  indicates  the  warmest  spots  in  a  forest  as 
those  where  trees  are  most  likely  to  be  thus  destroyed. 
After  an  Arctic  night,  in  which  they  are  frozen  solid, 
a  bright  sun  sends  its  rays  into  the  warmest  nooks, 
whence  the  wind  is  excluded,  and  .wholly  or  partially 
thaws  out  the  smaller  trees;  which  are  suddenly  frozen 
solid  again  so  soon  as  the  sunshine  is  withdrawn ;  and 
thig  partly  explains  to  my  mind  the  fact  that  peach- 
buds  are  often  killed  in  lower  and  level  portions  of 
an  orchard,  while  they  retain  their  vitality  on  the 
hill-side  and  at  its  crest,  not  80  rods  distant  from 
those  destroyed.  The  fact  that  the  colder  air  de- 
scends into  and  remains  in  the  valleys  of  a  rolling 
district  contributes  also  to  the  correct  explanation 
of  a  phenomenon  which  has  puzzled  some  obser- 
vers. 

Unless  in  a  favored  locality,  it  seems  to  me  unad- 
visable'for  a  farmer  who  expects  to  thrive  mainly  by 
the  production  of  Grain  and  Cattle,  to  attempt  the 
growing  of  the  finer  Fruits,  except  for  the  use  of  his 


158  WHAT   I    KNOW    OF    FARMING. 

own  family.  In  a  majority  of  cases,  a  multiplicity 
of  cares  and  labors  precludes  his  giving  to  his 
Peaches  and  Grapes,,  his  Plums  and  Quinces,  the 
seasonable  and  persistent  attention  which  they  abso- 
lutely require.  Quite  commonly,  a  farmer  visits 
a  grand  nursery,  sees  with  admiration  its  trees 
and  vines  loaded  with  the  most  luscious  Fruits, 
and  rashly  infers  that  he  has  only  to  buy  a  good 
stock  of  like  Trees  and  Yines  to  insure  himself 
an  abundance  of  delicious  fruit.  So  he  buys  and 
sets;  but  with  no  such  preparation  of  the  soil,  and 
no  such  care  to  keep  it  mellow  and  free  from  weeds, 
or  to  baffle  and  destroy  predatory  insects,  as  the 
nurseryman  employs.  Hence  the  utter  disappoint- 
ment of  his  hopes ;  borers,  slugs,  caterpillars,  and 
every  known  or  unknown  species  of  insect  enemies, 
prey  upon  his  neglected  favorites.  At  intervals, 
some  domestic  animal  or  animals  get  among  them, 
and  break  down  a  dozen  in  an  hour.  So,  the  far 
greater  number  come  to  grief,  without  having  had 
one  fair  chance  to  show  what  they  could  do,  and  the 
farmer  jumps  to  the  conclusion  that  the  nurseryman 
was  a  swindler,  and  the  trees  he  sells  scarcely  relat- 
ed to  those  whose  abundant  and  excellent  fruits 
tempted  him  to  buy.  I  counsel  every  farmer  to  con- 
sider thoughtfully  the  treatment  absolutely  required 
for  the  production  of  the  finer  Fruits  before  he 
allows  a  nurseryman  to  make  a  bill  against  him,  and 
not  expect  to  grow  Duchesse  Pears  as  easily  as 
Blackberries,  or  lonas  and  Catawbas  as  readily  as  he 


PEACHES — PEARS — CHERRIES— GRAPES.    159 

does  Fox-grapes  on  the  willows  which  overhang  his 
brook  ;  for  if  he  does  he  will  surely  be  disappointed. 

Some  of  our  hardier  and  coarser  Grapes — the  Con- 
cord preeminent  among  them — are  grown  with  con- 
siderable facility  over  a  wide  extent  of  our  country  ; 
and  many  farmers,  having  planted  them  in  congenial 
soil,  and  tended  them  well  throughout  their  infancy, 
are  rewarded  by  a  bounteous  product  for  two  or 
three  years.  Believing  their  suocess  assured,  they 
imagine  that  their  vines  may  henceforth  be  neglect- 
ed, and  in  the  course  of  two  or  three  more  years  they 
are  often  utterly  ruined.  I  know  that  there  are 
wild  grapes  of  some  value,  in  the  absence  of  better, 
which  thrive  and  bear  without  attention ;  but  I 
do  not  believe  that  any  grape  which  will  seh1  in 
a  market  where  good  fruit  was-  ever  seen,  can 
be  grown  north  of  Philadelphia  but  by  constant 
care  and  labor,  or  at  a  cost  of  less  than  five  cents  per 
pound,  under  the  most  judicious  and  skillful  treat- 
ment. In  California,  and  I  presume  in  most  of  our 
States  south  of  the  Potomac  and  Ohio,  choice  grapes 
may  be  grown  more  abundantly  and  more  cheaply. 
Yet  I  think  the  localities  are  few  and  far  between  in 
which  a  tun  of  good  grapes  can  be  grown  as  cheaply 
as  a  tun  of  wheat,  under  the  most  judicious  cultiva- 
tion in  either  case. 

I  do  not  mean  to  discourage  grape-growing;  on 
the  contrary,  I  would  have  every  farmer,  even  so  far 
north  as  Vermont  and  Wisconsin,  experiment  cau- 
tiously with  a  dozen  of  the  most  promising  varieties, 


160  WHAT   1   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

including  always  the  more  hardy,  in  the  hope  of  find- 
ing some  one  or  more  adapted  to  his  soil,  and  capable 
of  enduring  his  climate.  Even  in  France,  the  land 
of  the  vine,  one  farm  will  produce  a  grape  which  the 
very  next  will  not :  no  man  can  satisfactorily  say 
why.  The  farmer,  who  has  tried  half  a  dozen  grapes 
and  failed  with  all,  should  not  be  deterred  from  fur- 
ther experiments,  for  the  very  next  may  prove  a  suc- 
cess. I  would  only  say,  Be  moderate  in  your  expecta- 
tions and  careful  in  your  experiments;  and  never 
risk  even  $100  on  a.  vineyard,  till  you  have  ascer- 
tained, at  a  cost  of  $5  or  under,  whether  the  species 
you  are  testing  will  thrive  and  bear  on  your  soil. 

In  my  own  case,  my  upland  mainly  sloping  to  the 
west,  with  a  hill  rising  directly  south  of  it,  I  have 
had  no  luck  with  Grapes,  and  I  have  wasted  little 
time  or  means  upon  them.  I  have  done  enough  to 
show  that  they  can  be  grown,  even  in  such  a  locality } 
but  not  to  profit  or  satisfaction. 

I  would  advise  the  farmer  who  proposes  to  grow 
Pears,  Peaches,  and  Quinces,  for  home  use  only  or 
mainly,  to  select  a  piece  of  dry,  gravelly  or  sandy 
loam,  underdrain  it  thoroughly,  plow  or  trench  it 
very  deeply,  and  fertilize  it  generously,  in  good  part 
with  ashes  and  with  leaf -mold  from  his  woods.  Lo- 
cate the  pig-pen  on  one  side  of  it,  fence  it  strongly, 
and  let  the  pigs  have  the  run  of  it  for  a  good  portion 
of  each  year.  In  this  plat  or  yard,  plant  half  a  dozen 
Cherry  and  as  many  Pear  trees  of  choice  varieties, 
the  Bartlett  foremost  among  them  ;  keep  clear  of  all 


PEACHES — PEAKS — CHEEEIES — GK  APES.          161 

dwarfs,  and  let  your  choicest  trees  have  a  chance  to 
run  under  the  pig-pen  if  they  will.  Plant  here  also, 
if  your  climate  does  not  forbid,  a  dozen  well-chosen 
Peach-trees,  and  two  each  year  thereafter  to  replace 
those  that  will  soon  be  dying  out ;  and  give  half  a 
dozen  Quinces  moist  and  rich  locations  by  the  side  of 
your  fences;  surrounding  each  tree -with  stakes  or 
pickets  that  will  preclude  too  great  familiarity  on  the 
part  of  the  swine,  and  will  not  prevent  a  sharp  scru- 
tiny for  borers  in  their  season.  Do  not  forget  that  a 
fruit-tree  is  like  a  cow  tied  to  an  immovable  stake, 
from  which  you  cannot  continue  to  draw  a  pail  of 
milk  per  day  unless  you  carry  her  a  liberal  supply  of 
food ;  and  every  Fall  cart  in  half  a  dozen  loads  of 
muck  from  some  convenient  swamp  or  pond  for  your 
pigs  to  turn  over.  Should  they  leave  any  weeds,  cut 
them  with  a  scythe  as  often  as  they  seem  to  need  it ; 
never  allowing  one  to  ripen  seed.  There  may  be 
easier  and  surer  ways  to  obtain  choice  fruits ;  but 
this  one  commends  itself  to  my  judgment  as  not  sur- 
passed by  any  other.  I  think  few  have  grown  fruits 
to  profit  but  those  who  make  this  a  specialty ;  and  I 
feel  that  disappointment  in  fruit-culture  is  by  no 
means  near  the  end.  You  can  grow  Plums,  or 
Grapes,  or  Peaches,  outside  of  the  climate  most  con- 
genial to  them,  but  this  is  a  work  wherein  success  is 
likely  to  cost  more  than  its  worth.  Try  it  first  on  a 
small  scale,  if  you  will  try  it ;  and  be  sure  you  do  it 
thoroughly. 


XXYIII. 

GBAIN-GBOWING EAST   AND  WEST. 

• 

I  DISCLAIM  all  pretensions  to  ability  to  teach  West- 
ern farmers  how  to  grow  Indian  Corn  abundantly 
and  profitably,  while  I  cheerfully  admit  that  they 
have  taught  me  somewhat  thoroughly  worth  know- 
ing. In  my  boyhood,  I  hoed  Corn  diligently  for 
weeks  at  a  time,  drawing  the  earth  from  between  the 
rows  up  about  the  stalks  to  a  depth  of  three  or  four 
inches; thus  forming  hills  which  the  West  has  since 
taught  me  to  be  of  no  use,  but  rather  a  detriment, 
embarrassing  the  efforts  of  the  growing,  hungry 
plants  to  throw  out  their  roots  extensively  in  every 
direction,  and  subjecting  them  to  needless  injury 
from  drouth.  I  am  thoroughly  convinced  that  Corn, 
properly  planted,  will,  like  WTieat  and  all  other 
grains,  root  itself  just  deep  enough  in  the  ground, 
and  that  to  keep  down  all  weeds  and  leave  the  sur- 
face of  the  cornfield  open,  mellow  and  perfectly  flat, 
is  the  best  as  well  as  the  cheapest  way  to  cultivate 
Corn.  And  I  do  not  believe  that  so  much  human 
food,  with  so  little  labor,  is  produced  elsewhere  on 
(162) 


GKAIN-GROWING EAST   AND   WEST.  163 

earth  as  in  the  spacious  fields  of  Wheat  and  Corn  in 
our  grand  Mississippi  valley. 

And  yet  I  have  seen  in  that  valley  many  ample 
stretches  covered  with  Corn,  whereof  the  tillage 
seemed  susceptible  of  improvement.  Riding  between 
these  great  corn-fields  in  October,  after  everything 
standing  thereon  had  been  killed  by  frost,  it  seemed 
to  my  observation  that,  while  the  corn-crop  was  fair, 
the  weed-crop  was  far  more  luxuriant ;  so  that,  if 
everything  had  been  cut  clean  from  the  ground,  and 
the  corn  and  the  weeds  placed  in  opposite  scales,  the 
latter  would  have  weighed  down  the  former.  I  can- 
not doubt  that  the  cultivation,  or  lack  of  cultivation, 
which  produces  or  permits  such  results,  is  not  merely 
slovenly,  but  unthrifty. 

The  West  is  for  the  present,  as  for  a  generation 
she  has  been,  the  granary  of  the  East.  In  my  judg- 
ment, she  will  not  long  be  content  to  remain  so. 
Fifty  years  ago,  the  Genesee  valley  supplied  most  of 
the  wheat  and  flour  imported  into  New-England  ;  ten 
years  later,  Northern  Ohio  was  our  principal  re- 
source ;  ten  years  later  still,  Michigan,  Indiana, 
northern  Illinois,  and  eastern  Wisconsin,  had  been 
added  to  our  grain-growing  territory.  Another  de- 
cade, and  our  flour  manufacturers  had  crossed  the 
Mississippi,  laying  Iowa  and  Minnesota  under  liberal 
contributions,  while  western  New- York  had  ceased 
to  grow  even  her  own  breadstuffs,  and  Ohio  to  pro- 
duce one  bushel  more  than  she  needed  for  home  con- 
sumption. Can  we  doubt  that  this  steady  recession 


WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

of  our  Egypt,. our  Hungary,  is  destined  to  continue  ? 
Twenty-three  years  ago,  when  I  first  rode  out  from 
the  then  rising  village  of  Chicago  to  see  the  Illinois 
prairies,  nearly  every  wagon  I  met  was  loaded  with 
wheat,  going  into  Chicago,  to  be  sold  for  about  fifty 
cents  per  bushel,  and  the  proceeds  loaded  back  in  the 
form  of  lumber,  groceries,  and  almost  everything 
else,  grain  excepted,  needed  by  the  pioneers,  then 
dotting,  thinly  and  irregularly,  that  whole  region 
with  their  cabins.  Now,  I  presume  the  district  I 
then  traversed  produces  hardly  more  grain  than  it 
consumes ;  taking  Illinois  altogether,  I  doubt  that 
she  will  grow  her  own  breacfstuifs  after  1880 ;  not 
that  she  will  be  unable  to  produce  a  large  surplus, 
but  that  her  farmers  will  have  decided  that  they  can 
use  their  lands  otherwise  to  greater  advantage.  Iowa 
and  Minnesota  will  continue  to  export  grain  for  per- 
haps twenty  years  longer ;  but  even  their  time  will 
come  for  saying,  "  New-York  and  New-England  (not 
to  speak  of  Old  England)  are  too  far  away  to  furnish 
profitable  markets  for  such  bulky  products ;  the  cost 
of  transportation  absorbs  the  larger  part  of  the  cargo. 
We  must  export  instead  Wool,  Meat,  Lard,  Butter, 
Cheese,  Hops,  and  various  Manufactures,  whereof  the 
freight  will  range  from  2  up  to  not  more  than  25  per 
cent,  of  the  value."  They  will  thus  save  their  soil  from 
the  tremendous  exaction  made  by  taking  grain-crop 
after  grain-crop  persistently,  which  long  ago  ex- 
hausted most  of  New-England  and  eastern  New- 
York  cf  wheat-forming  material,,  and  has  since 


GRAIN-GKOWIXG — EAST   AND   WEST.  165 

wrought  the  same  deplorable  result  in  our  rich  Gen- 
esee  valley ;  while  eastern  Pennsylvania,  though  set- 
tled nearly  two  centuries  ago,  having  pursued  a  more 
rational  and  provident  system  of  husbandry,  grows 
excellent  wheat-crops  to  this  day. 

I  insist  that  the  States  this  side  of  the  Delaware, 
though  they  will  draw  much  grain  from  the  Canadas 
after  the  political  change  that  cannot  be  far  distant, 
will  be  compelled  to  grow  a  very  considerable  share 
of  their  own  breadstuifs ;  that  the  West  will  cease  to 
supply  them  unless  at  prices  which  they  will  deem  ex- 
orbitant ;  and  that  grain-growing  eastward  of  a  line 
drawn  from  Baltimore  due  north  to  the  Lakes  will 
have  to  be  very  considerably  extended.  Let  us  see, 
then,  whether  this  might  not  be  done  with  profit  even 
now,  and  whether  the  East  is  not  unwise  in  having  so 
generally  abandoned  grain-growing. 

I  leave  out  of  the  account  most  of  New-England,  as 
well  as  of  Eastern  New-York,  and  the  more  rugged 
portions  of  New-Jersey  and  Pennsylvania,  where  the 
rocky,  hilly,  swampy  face  of  the  country  seems  to 
forbid  any  but  that  patchy  cultivation,  wherein 
machinery  and  mechanical  power  can  scarcely  be 
made  available,  and  which  seem,  therefore,  perma- 
nently fated  to  persevere  in  a  system  of  agriculture 
and  horticulture  not  essentially  unlike  that  they  now 
exhibit.  In  the  valleys  of  the  Penobscot,  the  Ken- 
nebec,  the  Hudson,  and  of  our  smaller  .rivers,  there 
are  considerable  tracts  absolutely  free  from  these 
natural  impediments,  whereon  a  larger  and  more 


166  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

efficient  husbandry  is  perfectly  practicable,  even 
now ;  but  these  intervales  are  generally  the  property 
of  many  owners;  are  cut  up  by  roads  and  fences; 
and  are  held  at  high  prices :  so  that  I  will  simply 
pass  them  by,  and  take  for  illustration  the  "  Pine 
Barrens  "  of  Southern  New-Jersey,  merely  observing 
that  what  I  say  of  them  is  equally  applicable,  with 
slight  modifications,  to  large  portions  of  Long  Island, 
Delaware,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  the  Carolines. 

The  "Pine  Barrens"  of  New-Jersey  are  a  marine 
deposit  of  several  hundred  feet  in  depth,  mainly  sand, 
with  which  more  or  less  clay  is  generally  intermingled, 
while  there  are  beds  and  even  broader  stretches  of 
this  material  nearly  or  quite  pure;  the  clay  some- 
times underlying  the  sand  at  a  depth  of  10  to  30  or 
40  inches.  Yast  deposits  of  muck  or  leaf-mold,  often 
of  many  acres  in  extent  and  from  two  to  twenty  feet 
in  depth,  are  very  common ;  so  that  hardly  any  por- 
tion of  the  dry  or  sandy  land  is  two  miles  distant 
from  one  or  more  of  them,,  while  some  is  usually 
much  nearer ;  and  half  the  entire  region  is  underlaid 
by  at  least  one  stratum  of  the  famous  marl  (formed 
of  the  decomposed  bones  of  gigantic  marine  monsters 
long  ago  extinct)  which  has  already  played  so  import- 
ant and  beneficent  a  part  in  the  renovation  and  fer- 
tilization of  large  districts  in  Monmouth,  Burlington, 
Salem,  and  other  counties. 

Let  us  suppose  now  that  a  farmer  of  ample  means 
and  generous  capacity  should  purchase  four  hundred 
acres  of  these  "  barrens,"  with  intent  to  produce 


GKAEST-GROWING — EAST  AND   WEST.  167 

therefrom,  not  sweet  potatoes,  melons,  and  the 
"  truck  "  to  which  Southern  Jersey  is  so  largely  de- 
voted, but  substantial  Grain  and  Meat;  and  let  us 
see  whether  the  enterprise  would  probably  pay. 

Let  us  not  stint  the  outlay,  but,  presuming  the 
tract  to  be  eligibly  located  on  a  railroad  not  too  dis- 
tant from  some  good  marl-bed,  estimate  as  follows : 

Purchase-money  of  400  acres  at  $25  per  acre .$10,000 

Clearing,  grubbing,  fencing  and  breaking  up  ditto  at  $20 

per  acre,  over  and  above  the  proceeds  of  the  wood 8,000 

One  thousand  bushels  of  best  Marl  per  acre,  at  6  cents  per 

bushel  delivered 24,000 

One  hundred  loads  of  Swamp  Muck,  per  acre,  at  50  cents 
per  load 20,000 

Fifty  bushels  (unslaked)  of  Oyster-shell  Lime  (to  compost 
with  the  Muck),  per  acre,  at  25  cents  per  bushel,  deliv- 
ered  , 5,000 

One  hundred  tuns  of  Bone  Flour  at  $50  per  tun 5,000 


[Net  cost,  $180  per  acre.]  Total $72,000 

I  believe  that  this  tract,  divided  by  light  fences 
into  four  fields  of  100  acres  each,  and  seeded  in  rota- 
tion to  Corn,  Wheat,  Clover  and  other  grasses,  would 
produce  fully  60  bushels  of  Corn  and  30  of  Wheat  per 
acre,  with  not  less  than  3  tuns  of  good  Hay ;  and  that 
by  cutting,  steaming,  and  feeding  the  stalks  and  straw 
on  the  place,  not  pasturing,  but  keeping  up  the  stock, 
and  feeding  them,  as  indicated  in  a  former  chapter 
of  these  essays,  and  selling  their  product  in  the  form 
of  Milk,  Butter,  Cheese  and  Meat,  a  greater  profit 
would  be  realized  than  could  be  from  a  like  invest- 


168  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

ment  in  Iowa  or  Kansas.  The  soil  is  warm,  readily 
frees  itself,  or  is  freed,  from  surplus  water ;  is  not 
addicted  to  weeds  ;  may  be  plowed  at  least  200  days 
in  a  year;  may  be  sowed  or  planted  in  the  Spring, 
when  Minnesota  is  yet  solidly  frozen ;  while  the  crop, 
early  matured,  is  on  hand  to  take  advantage  of  any 
sudden  advance  in  the  European  or  our  own  seaboard 
•markets.  Labor,  also,  is  cheaper  and  more  rapidly 
procured  in  the  neighborhood  of  this  great  focus  of 
immigration  than  it  is  or  can  be  in  the  West ;  and 
our  capable  farmers  may  take  their  pick  of  the  work- 
ers thronging  hither  from  Europe,  at  the  moment  of 
their  landing  on  our  shore.  Of  course,  the  owner  of 
such  an  estate  as  I  have  roughly  outlined,  would  be 
likely  to  keep  a  part  of  his  purchase  in  timber,  im- 
proving the  quality  thereof  by  cutting  out  the  less 
desirable,  trees,  trimming  up  the  rest,  and  planting 
new  ones  among  them  ;  and  he  would  be  almost  cer- 
tain to  devote  some  part  of  his  farm  annually  to  the 
growth  of  Hoots,  Yegetables,  and  Fruits.  But  I  have 
aimed  to  show  only  that  he  would  grow  grain  here 
at  a  profit,  and  I  think  I  have  succeeded.  His  60 
bushels  of  corn  (shelled)  per  acre  could  be  sold  at  his 
crib,  one  year  with  another,  for  60  silver  dollars ;  and 
he  need  seldom  wait  a  month  after  husking  it  for 
customers  who  would  gladly  take  his  grain  and  pay 
the  money  for  it.  This  would  be  just  about  double 
what  the  Iowa  or  Missouri  farmer  can  expect  to 
average  for  his  Corn.  The  abundant  fodder  would 
also  be  worth  in  New- Jersey  at  least  double  its  value 


GRAIN-GKOWING EAST   AND   WEST.  169 

in  Iowa ;  and  I  judge  that  the  farmer  able  to  buy, 
prepare,  fertilize,  and  cultivate  1,200  acres  of  the 
Jersey  "  barrens,"  could  make  more  than  thrice  the 
profit  to  be  realized  by  the  owner  of  400  acres.  He 
would  plow  and  seed  as  well  as  thrash,  shell,  cut  stalks 
and  straw,  and  prepare  the  food  of  his  animals,  wholly 
by  steam-power,  and  would  soon  learn  to  cultivate  a 
square  mile  at  no  greater  expense  than  is  now  involved 
in  the  as  perfect  tillage  of  200  acres. 

This  essay  is  not  intended  to  prove  that  Grain  is 
not  or  may  not  be  profitably  cultivated  at  the  West, 
nor  that  it  is  unadvisable  for  Eastern  farmers  io 
migrate  thither  in  order  so  to  cultivate  it.  What  I 
maintain  is,  that  Wheat,  Indian  Corn,  and  nearly  all 
our  great  food  staples,  may  also  be  profitably  pro- 
duced on  the  seaboard,  and  that  thousands  of  square 
miles,  now  nearly  or  quite  unproductive,  may  be 
wisely  and  profitably  devoted  to  such  production.  Let 
us  regard,  therefore,  without  alarm,  the  prospect  of 
such  a  development  and  diversification  of  Western 
Industry  as  will  render  necessary  a  large  and  perma- 
nent extension  (or  rather  revival)  of  Eastern  grain- 
growing. 


8 


XXIX. 

ESCULENT   ROOTS POTATOES. 

IN  no  other  form  can  so  large  an  amount  and  -value 
of  human  food  be  ob tamed  from  an  acre  of  ground  as 
in.  that  of  edible  roots  or  tubers ;  and  of  these  the 
Potato  is  by  far  the  most  acceptable,  and  in  most 
general  use.  Our  ancestors,  it  is  settled,  were  desti- 
tute and  ignorant  of  the  Potato  prior  to  the  discov- 
ery of  America,  though  Europe  would  now  find  it 
difficult  to  subsist  her  teeming  millions  without  it. 
In  travelling  pretty  widely  over  that  continent,  I 
cannot  remember  that  I  found  any  considerable  dis- 
trict in  which  the  Potato  was  not  cultivated,  though 
Ireland,  western  England,  and  northern  Switzerland, 
with  a  small  portion  of  northern  Italy,  are  impressed 
on  my  mind  as  the  most  addicted  to  the  growth  of 
this  esculent.  Other  roots  are  eaten  occasionally,  by 
way  of  variety,  or  as  giving  a  relish  to  ordinary  food ; 
but  the  Potato  alone  forms  part  of  the  every -day  diet 
alike  of  prince  and  peasant.  It  is  an  almost  indis- 
pensable ingredient  of  the  feasts  of  Dives,  while  it  is 
the  cheapest  and  commonest  resort  for  satiating  or 
moderating  the  hunger  of  Lazarus.  I  recollect  hear- 
(170) 


ESCULENT   ROOTS — POTATOES.  171 

ing  my  parents,  fifty  years  ago,  relate  how,  in  their 
childhood  and  youth,  the  poor  of  New-England,  when 
the  grain-crop  of  that  region  was  cut  short,  as  it  often 
was,  were  obliged  to  subsist  through  the  following 
Winter  mainly  on  Potatoes  and  Milk;  and  I  then 
accorded  to  those  unfortunates  of  the  preceding  gen- 
eration a  sympathy  which  I  should  now  considerably 
abate,  provided  the  Potatoes  were  of  good  quality. 
Roasted  Potatoes,  seasoned  with  salt  and  butter  and 
washed  down  with  bounteous  draughts  of  fresh  but- 
termilk, used  in  those  days  to  be  the  regular  supper 
served  up  in  farmers'  homes  after  a  churning  of  cream 
into  butter;  and  I  have  since  eaten  costly  suppers  that 
were  not  half  so  good. 

The  Potato,  say  some  accredited  accounts,  was  first 
brought  to  Europe  from  Virginia,  by  Sir  Walter 
Raleigh  in  1586  or  1587 ;  but  I  do  not  believe  the 
story.  Authentic  tradition  affirms  that  the  Potato 
was  utterly  unknown  in  New-England,  or  at  all 
events  east  of  the  Connecticut,  when  the  Scotch- 
Irish  who  first  settled  Londonderry,  N.  H.,  came 
over  from  old  Londonderry,  Ireland,  bringing  the 
Potato  with  them.  They  spent  the  Winter  of  1719 
in  different  parts  of  Massachusetts  and  Maine — quite 
a  number  of  them  at  Haverhill,  Mass.,  where  they 
gave  away  &  few  Potatoes  for  seed,  on  leaving  for 
their  own  chosen  location  in  the  Spring;  and  they 
afterward  learned  that  the  English  colonists,  who  re- 
ceived them,  tried  hard  to  find  or  make  the  seed-balls 
edible  the  next  Fall,  but  were  obliged  to  give  it  up  as 


172  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF    FARMING. 

a  bad  job,  leaving  the  tubers  untouched  and  unsus- 
pected in  the  ground. 

I  doubt  that  the  Potato  was  found  growing  by 
Europeans  in  any  part  of  this  country,  unless  it  be  in 
that  we  have  acquired  from  Mexico.  It  is  essentially 
a  child  of  the  mountains,  and  I  presume  it  grew  wild 
nowhere  else  than  on  the  sides  of  the  great  chain 
which  traversed  Spanish  America,  at  a  height  of  from 
5,000  to  8,000  feet  above  the  surface  of  the  ocean. 
Here  it  found  a  climate  cooled  by  the  elevation  and 
moistened  by  melting  snows  from  above  and  by  fre- 
quent showers,  yet  one  which  seldom  allowed  the 
ground  to  be  frozen  to  any  considerable  depth,  while 
the  pure  and  bracing  atmosphere  was  congenial  to  its 
nature  and  requirements.  In  this  country,  the  Potato 
is  hardiest  and  thriftiest  among  the  White  Mountains 
of  New-Hampshire,  the  Green  Mountains  of  Vermont, 
on  the  Catskills  and  kindred  elevations  in  our  own 
State,  and  in  similar  regions  of  Pennsly  vania  and  the 
States  further  South  and  West. 

My  own  place  is  at  least  15  miles  from,  and  500  feet 
above,  Long  Island  Sound  ;  yet  I  cannot  make  the 
Potato,  by  the  most  generous  treatment,  so  prolific 
as  it  was  in  New-Hampshire  in  my  boyhood,  where  I 
dug  a  bushel  from  14  hills,  grown  on  rough,  hard 
ground,  but  which,  having  just  been  .cleared  of  a 
thick  growth  of  bushes  and  briars,  was  probably 
better  adapted  to  this  crop  than  though  it  had  been 
covered  an  inch  deep  with  barn-yard  manure. 

He  who  has  a  tolerably  dry,  warm,  or  sandy  soil, 


ESCULENT  BOOTS POTATOES.         173 

covered  two  or  three  inches  deep  with  decayed  or 
decaying  leaves  and  brush,  may  count  with  confi- 
dence on  raising  from  it  a  good  crop  of  Potatoes, 
provided  his  seed  be  sound  and  healthy.  On  the 
other  hand,  all  authorities  agree  that  animal  ma- 
nures, unless  very  thoroughly  rotted  and  intimately 
mixed  with  the  soil,  are  injurious  to  the  quality  of 
Potatoes  grown  thereon,  stimulating  any  tendency 
to  disease,  if  they  do  not  originally  produce  such 
disease.  I  believe  that  Swamp  Muck,  dug  in  Sum- 
mer or  Autumn,  deposited  on  a  dry  bank  or  glade, 
and  cured  of  its  acidity  by  an  admixture  of  Wood- 
Ashes,  of  Lime,  or  of  Salt  (better  still,  of  Lime  and 
Salt  chemically  compounded  by  dissolving  the  Salt 
in  the  least  possible  quantity  of  Water,  and  slaking 
the  lime  with  that  Water),  forms  an  excellent  ferti- 
lizer for  Potatoes,  if  administered  with  a  liberal 
hand.  A  bushel  of  either  of  these  alkalies  to  a  cord 
of  muck  is  too  little ;  the  dose  should  be  doubled  if 
possible  ;  but,  if  the  quantity  be  small,  mix  it  more 
carefully,  and  give  it  all  the  time  you  can  wherein 
to  operate  upon  the  muck  before  applying  the  mixture 
to  your  fields. 

Where  the  muck  is  not  easily  to  be  had,  yet  the 
soil  is  thin  and  poor,  I  would  place  considerable 
reliance  on  deep  plowing  and  subsoiling  in  the  Fall, 
and  cross-plowing  just  before  planting  in  the  Spring. 
Give  a  good  dressing  of  Plaster,  not  less  than  200 
Ibs.  to  the  acre,  directly  after  the  Fall  plowing ;  if 
you  have  Ashes,  scatter  them  liberally  in  the  drill  or 


174:  WHAT    I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

hill  as  you  plant;  and,  if  you  have  them  not,  supply 
their  place  with  Super-phosphate  or  Bone-dust.  I 
think  many  farmers  will  be  agreeably  surprised  by 
the  additional  yield  which  will  accrue  from  this  treat- 
ment of  their  soil. 

Those  who  have  no  swamp  muck,  and  feel  that 
they  can  afford  the  outlay,  may,  by  plowing  or  sub- 
soiling  early  in  the  Fall,  seeding  heavily  with  rye, 
and  turning  this  under  when  the  time  comes  for 
planting  in  the  Spring,  improve  both  crop  and  soil 
materially.  But  even  to  these  I  would  say :  Apply 
the  Gypsum  in  the  Fall,  and  the  Ashes  or  Lime  and 
Salt  mixture  in  the  Spring;  and  now,  with  good 
seed  and  good  luck,  you  will  be  reasonably  sure 
of  a  bounteous  harvest.  If  a  farmer,  having  a 
poor  worn-out  field  of  sandy  loam,  wants  to  do 
his  very  best  by  it,  let  him  plow,  subsoil,  sow  rye 
and  plaster  in  the  Fall,  as  above  indicated,  turn  this 
under,  and  sow  buckwheat  late  in  the  next  Spring ; 
plow  this  under  in  turn  when  it  has  attained  its 
growth,  and  sow  to  clover ;  turn  this  down  the  fol- 
lowing Spring,  and  plant  to  late  potatoes,  and  he 
will  not  merely  obtain  a  large  crop,  but  have  hia 
land  in  admirable  condition  for  whatever  may  follow. 

I  am  quite  well  aware  that  such  an  outlay  of  labor 
and  seed,  with  ail  entire  loss  of  crop  for  one  season, 
will  seem  to  many  too  costly.  I  do  not  advise  it  ex- 
cept under  peculiar  circumstances;  and  yet  I  am 
confident  that  there  are  many  fields  that  would  be 
doubled  in  value  by  such  treatment,  which  would 


ESCULENT   ROOTS POTATOES.  175 

richly  repay  all  its  cost.  That  most  fanners  could 
not  afford  thus  to  treat  their  entire  farms  at  once,  is 
very  true  ;  yet  it  does  not  follow  that  they  might  not 
deal  with  field  after  field  thus  thoroughly,  living  on 
the  products  of  40  or  50  acres,  while  they  devoted  five 
or  six  annually  to  the  work  of  thorough  renovation. 

A  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  we  were  threatened 
with  a  complete  extinction  of  the  Potato,  as  an 
article  of  food :  the  stalks,  when  approaching,  or  just 
attaining  maturity,  were  suddenly  smitten  with  fatal 
disease — usually,  after  a  warm  rain  followed  by  scald- 
ing sunshine — the  growing  tubers  were  speedily  af- 
fected ;  they  rotted  in  the  ground,  and  they  rotted 
nearly  as  badly  if  dug ;  and  whole  townships  qpuld 
hardly  .show  a  bushel  of  sound  Potatoes. 

A  desolating  famine  in  Ireland,  which  swept  away 
or  drove  into  exile  nearly  two  millions  of  her  people, 
was  the  most  striking  and  memorable  result  of 
this  wide-spread  disaster.  For  several  succeeding 
seasons,  the  Potato  was  similarly,  though  not  so  ex- 
tensively, affected ;  and  the  fears  widely  expressed 
that  the  day  of  its  usefulness  was  over,  seemed  to 
have  ample  justification.  Speaking  generally,  the 
Potato  has  never  since  been  so  hardy  or  prolific  as  it 
was  half  a  century  ago ;  it  has  gradually  recovered, 
however,  from  its  low  estate,  and, though  the  malady 
still  lingers,  and  from  time  to  time  renews  its  rav- 
ages in  different  localities,  the  farmer  now  plants 
judiciously  and  on  fit  ground,  with  a  reasonable  hope 
that  his  labor  will  be  duly  rewarded. 


176  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

It  seems  to  be  generally  agreed  that  clayey  soils 
are  not  adapted  to  its  growth  ;  that,  if  the  quantity 
of  the  crop  be  not  stinted,  its  quality  is  pretty  sure 
to  be  inferior  ;  and  I  can  personally  testify  that  the 
planting  of  Potatoes  on  wet  soil — that  is,  on  swampy 
or  spongy  land  which  has  not  been  thoroughly  drain- 
ed and  sweetened — is  a  hopeless,  thriftless  labor — 
that  the  crop  will  seldom  be  worth  the  seed. 

As  to'  the  ten  or  a  dozen  different  insects  to  which 
the  Potato-rot  has  been  attributed,  I  regard  them  all 
as  consequences,  not  causes ;  attracted  to  prey  on  the 
plant  by  its  sickly,  weakly  condition,  and  not  really 
responsible  for  that  condition.  If  any  care  for  my 
realms,  let  him  refer  to  what  I  have  said  of  the 
Wheat-plant  and  its  insect  enemies.* 

There  has  been  much  discussion  as  to  the  kind  of 
seed  to  be  planted ;  and  I  think  the  result  has  been 
a  pretty  general  conviction  -that  it  is  better  to  cut  the 
tuber  into  pieces  having  two  or  three  eyes  each, 
than  to  plant  it  whole,  since  the  whole  Potato  sends  up 
a  superfluity  of  stalks,  with  a  like  effect  on  the  crop  to 
that  of  putting  six  or  eight  kernels  of  corn  in  each  hill. 

Small  Potatoes  are  immature,  unripe,  and  of  course 
should  never  be  planted,  since  their  progeny  will  be 
feeble  and  sickly.  Select  for  seed  none  but  thor- 
oughly ripe  Potatoes,  and  the  larger  the  better. 

My  own  judgment  favors  planting  in  drills  rather 
than  hills,  with  ample  space  for  working  between 
them  ;  not  less  than  30  inches :  the  seed  being  drop- 

*  See  Chapter  XXII. 


ESCULENT   ROOTS— POTATOES.  177 

ped  about  6  inches  apart  in  the  drill.  The  soil  must 
be  deep  and  mellow,  for  the  Potato  suffers  from 
drouth  much  sooner  than  Indian  Corn  or  almost  any 
other  crop  usually  grown  among  us.  I  believe  in 
covering  the  seed  from  2  to  2£  inches;  and  I  hold  to 
flat  or  level  culture  for  this  as  for  everything  else. 
Planting  on  a  ridge  made  by  turning  two  furrows 
together  may  be  advisable  where  the  land  is  wet ; 
but  then  wet  land  never  can  be  made  fit  for  cultiva- 
tion, except  by  underd raining.  And  I  insist  upon 
setting  the  rows  or  drills  well  apart,  because  I  hold 
that  the  soil  should  often  be  loosened  and  stirred  to 
a  good  depth  with  the  subsoil  plow ;  and  that  this 
process  should  be  persevered  in  till  the  plant  is  in 
blossom.  Hardly  any  plant  will  pay  better  for  per- 
sistent cultivation  than  the  Potato. 

As  to  varieties,  I  will  only  say  that  planting  the 
tubers  for  seed  is  an  unnatural  process,  which  tends 
and  must  tend  to  degeneracy.  The  new  varieties 
now  most  prized  will  certainly  run  out  in  the  course  of 
twenty  or  thirty  years  at  furthest,  and  must  be  re- 
placed from  time  to  time  by  still  newer,  grown  from 
the  seed.  This  creation  of  new  species  is,  and  must 
be,  a  slow,  expensive  process;  since  not  one  in  a 
hundred  of  these  varieties  possess  any  value.  I  do  n't 
quite  believe  in  selling — I  mean  in  buying — Potatoes 
at  $1  per  pound ;  but  he  who  originates  a  really 
valuable  new  Potato  deserves  a  recompense  for  his  in- 
dustry, patience,  and  good  fortune;  and  I  shall  be 
glad  to  learn  that  he  receives  it. 
8* 


XXX. 

ROOTS—- TURNIPS BEETS CARROTS. 

IF  there  be  any  who  still  hold  that  this  country 
must  ultimately  rival  that  magnificent  Turnip -cul- 
ture which  has  so  largely  transformed  the  agricul- 
tural industry  of  England  and  Scotland,  while  sig- 
nally and  beneficently  increasing  its  annual  product, 
I  judge  that  time  will  prove  them  mistaken.  The 
striking  diversity  of  climate  between"  the  opposite 
coasts  of  the  Atlantic  forbids  the  realization  of  their 
hopes.  The  British  Isles,  with  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  adjacent  coast  of  Continental  Europe,  have  a 
climate  so  modified  by  the  Gulf  Stream  and  the  ocean 
that  their  Summers  are  usually  moist  and  cool,  their 
Autumns  still  more  so,  and  their  Winters  rarely  so 
cold  as  to  freeze  the  earth  considerably ;  while  our 
Summers  and  Autumns  are  comparatively  hot  and 
dry ;  our  Winters  in  part  intensely  cold,  so  as  to  freeze 
the  earth  solid  for  a  foot  or  more.  Hence,  every 
variety  of  turnip  is  exposed  here  in.  its  tenderer  stages 
to  the  ravages  of  every  devouring  insect ;  while  the 
1st  of  December  often,  finds  the  soil  of  all  but  our 
Southern  and  Pacific  States  so  frozen  that  cannon- 
(178) 


BOOTS — TURNIPS — BEETS — CAEKOTS.  179 

wheels  would  hardly  track  it,  and  roots  not  previously 
dug  up  must  remain  fast  in  the  earth  for  weeks  and 
often  for  months.  Hence,  the  turnip  can  never  grow 
so  luxuriantly,  nor  be  counted  on  with  such  certainty, 
here  as  in  Great  Britain  ;  nor  can  animals  be  fed  on 
it  in  "Winter,  except  at  the  heavy  cost  of  pulling  or 
digging,  cutting  off  the  tops  and  carefully  housing  in 
Autumn,  and  then  slicing  and  feeding  out  in  Winter. 
It  is  manifest  that  turnips  thus  handled,  however 
economically,  cannot  compete  with  hay  and  corn- 
fodder  in  our  Eastern  and  Middle  States ;  nor  with 
these  and  the  cheaper  species  of  grain  in  the  West, 
as  the  daily  Winter  food  of  cattle. 

Still,  I  hold  that  our  stock-growing  farmers  profit- 
ably may,  and  ultimately  will,  grow  some  turnips  to 
be  fed  out  to  their  growing  and  working  animals. 
A  good  meal  of  turnips  given  twice  a  week,  if  not 
oftener,  to  these,  will  agreeably  and  usefully  break 
the  monotony  of  living  exclusively  on  dry  fodder,  and 
will  give  a  relish  to  their  hay  or  cut  stalks  and  straw, 
which  cannot  fail  to  tell  upon  their  appetite,  growth 
and  thrift.  Let  our  cattle-breeders  begin  with  grow- 
ing an  acre  or  two  each  of  Swedes  per  annum,  so  as 
to  give  their  stock  a  good  feed  of  them,  sliced  thin 
in  an  effective  machine,  at  least  once  in  each  week, 
and  I  feel  confident  that  they  will  continue  to  grow 
turnips,  and  will  grow  more  and  more  of  them 
throughout  future  years. 

The  Beet  seems  to  me  better  adapted  to  our 
climate,  especially  south  of  the  fortieth  degree  of 


180  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAEMING. 

north  latitude,  than  any  variety  of  the  Turnip  with 
which  I  am  acquainted,  and  destined,  in  the  good 
time  coming,  when  we  shall  have  at  least  doubled  the 
average  depth  of  our  soil,  to  very  extensive  cultiva- 
tion among  us.  I  am  not  regarding  either  of  these 
roots  with  reference  to  its  use  as  human  food,  since 
our  farmers  generally  understand  that  use  at  least 
as  well  as  I  do ;  nor  will  I  here  consider  at  length 
the  use  of  the  Beet  in  the  production  6f  Sugar.  I 
value  that  use  highly,  believing  that  millions'  of  the 
poorer  classes  throughout  Europe  have  been  enabled 
to  enjoy  Sugar  through  its  manufacture  from  the 
Beet  who  would  rarely  or  never  have  tasted  that 
luxury  in  the  absence  of  this  manufacture.  The 
people  of  Europe  thus  made  familiar  with  Sugar  can 
hardly  be  fewer  than  100,000,000;  and  the  number  is 
annually  increasing.  The  cost  of  Sugar  to  these  is 
considerably  less  in'money,  while  immeasurably  less  in 
labor,  than  it  would  or  could  have  been  had  the 
tropical  Cane  been  'still  regarded  as  the  only  plant 
available  for  the  production  of  Sugar. 

But  the  West  Indies,  wherein  the  Cane  flourishes 
luxuriantly  and  renews  itself  perennially,  lie  at  our 
doors.  They  look  to  us  for  most  of  their  daily  bread, 
and  for  many  other  necessaries  of  life ;  while  several, 
if  not  all  of  them,  are  manifestly  destined,  in  the 
natural  progress  of  events,  to  invoke  the  protection 
of  our  flag.  I  do  not,  therefore,  feel  confident  that 
Beet  Sugar  now  promises  to  become  an  important 
staple  destined  to  take  a  high  rank  among  the  pro- 


ROOTS TURNIPS BEETS — CARROTS.  181 

ducts  of  our  national  industry.  "With  cheap  labor,  I 
believe  it  might  to-day  be  manufactured  with  profit  in 
the  rich,  deep  valleys  of  California,  and  perhaps  in 
those  of  Utah  and  Colorado  as  well.  On  the  whole, 
however,  I  cannot  deem  the  prospect  encouraging  for 
the  American  promoters  of  the  manufacture  of  Beet 
Sugar. 

But  when  we  shall  have  deepened  essentially  the 
soil  of  our  arable  acres,  fertilized  it  abundantly,  and 
cured  it  by  faithful  cultivation  of  its  vicious  addic- 
tion to  weed-growing,  I  believe  we  shall  devote  mil- 
lions of  those  acres  to  the  growth  of  Beets  for  cattle- 
food,  and,  having  learned  how  to  harvest  as  well  as 
till  them  mainly  by  machinery,  with  little  help  from 
hand  labor,  we  shall  produce  them  with  eminent 
profit  and  satisfaction  to  the  grower.  On  soil  fully 
two  feet  deep,  thoroughly  underdrained  and  amply 
fertilized,  I  believe  we  shall  often  produce  one  thous- 
and bushels  of  Beets- to  the  acre ;  and  so  much  accept- 
able and  valuable  food  for  cattle  can-  hardly  be  ob- 
tained from  an  acre  in  any  other  form. 

So  with  regard  to  Carrots.  I  have  never  achieved 
eminent  success  in  growing  these,  nor  Beets ;  mainly 
because  the  soil  on  which  I  attempted  to  grow  them 
was  not  adapted  to,  or  rather  not  yet  in  condition  for, 
such  culture.  But,  should  I  live  a  few  years  longer, 
until  my  reclaimed  swamp  shall  have  become  thor- 
oughly sweetened  and  civilized,  I  mean  to  grow  on 
some  part  thereof  1,000  bushels  of  Carrots  per  acre, 


182  WHAT   I    KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

and  a  still  larger  product  of  Beets  ;  and  the  Carrot, 
in  my  judgment,  ought  now  to  be  extensively  grown 
in  the  South  and  West,  as  well  as  in  this  section,  for 
feeding  to  horses.  I  hold  that  60  bushels  of  Carrots 
and  50  of  Oats,  fed  in  alternate  meals,  are  of  at  least 
equal  value  as  horse-feed  with  100  bushels  of  Oats 
alone,  while  more  easily  grown  in  this  climate.  The 
Oat-crop  makes  heavy  drafts  upon  the  soil,  while 
our  hot  Summers  are  not  congenial  to  its  thrift  or 
perfection.  Since  we  must  grow  Oats,  we  must  be 
content  to  import  new  seed  every  10  or  15  years  from 
Scotland,  Norway,  and  other  countries  which  have 
cooler,  moister  Summers  than  our  own  ;  for  the  Oat 
will  inevitably  degenerate  under  such  suns  as  blazed 
through  the  latter  half  of  our  recent  June.  Believ- 
ing that  the  Carrot  may  profitably  replace  at  least 
half  the  Oats  now  grown  in  this  country,  I  look  for- 
ward with  confidence  to  its  more  and  more  extensive 
cultivation. 

The  advantage  of  feeding  Roots  to  stock  is  not  to 
be  measured  and  bounded  by  their  essential  value. 
Beasts,  like  men,  require  a  variety  of  food,  and  thrive 
best  upon  a  regimen  which  involves  a  change  of  diet. 
Admit  that  Hay  is  their  cheapest  Winter  food ;  still, 
an  occasional  meal  of  something  more  succulent  will 
prove  beneficial,  and  this  is  best  afforded  by  Roots. 


XXXI. 

THE  FARMER'S  CALLING. 

IF  any  one  fancies  that  he  ever  heard  me  flattering 
farmers  as  a  class,  or  saying  anything  which  implied 
that,  they  were  more  virtuous,  upright,  unselfish,  or 
deserving,  t]jan  other  people,  I  am  sure  he  must  have 
misunderstood  or  that  he  now  misrecollects  me.  I 
do  not  even  join  in  the  cant,  which  speaks  of  farmers 
as  supporting  everybody  else — of  farming  as  the  only 
indispensable  vocation.  You  may  say  if  you  will  that 
mankind  could  not  subsist  if  there  were  no  tillers  of 
the  soil ;  but  the  same  is  true  of  house-builders,  and 
of  some  other  classes.  A  thoroughly  good  farmer  is 
a  useful,  valuable  citizen  :  so  is  a  good  merchant, 
doctor,  or  lawyer.  It  is  not  essential  to  the  true 
nobility  and  genuine  worth  of  the  farmer's  calling 
that  any  other  should  be  assailed  or  disparaged. 

Still,  if  one  of  my  three  sons  had  been  spared  to 
attain  manhood,  I  should  have  advised  him  to  try  to 
make  himself  a  good  farmer ;  and  this  without  any 
romantic  or  poetic  notions  of  Agriculture  as  a  pur- 
suit. I  know  well,  from  personal  though  youthful 
experience,  that  the  farmer's  life  is  one  of  labor, 

(183) 


184  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF    FARMING. 

anxiety,  and  care;  that  hail,  and  flood,  and  hurri- 
cane, and  untimely  frosts,  over  which  he  can  exert 
no  control,  will  often  destroy  in  an  hour  the  net 
results  of  months  of  his  persistent,  well-directed  toil ; 
that  disease  will  sometimes  sweep  away  his  animals, 
in  spite  of  the  most  judicious  treatment,  the  most 
thoughtful  providence,  on  his  part ;  and  that  insects, 
blight,  and  rust,  will  often  blast  his  well-grounded 
hopes  of  a  generous  harvest,  when  they  seem  on  the 
very  point  of  realization.  I  know  that  he  is  neces- 
sarily exposed,  more  than  most  other  men,  to  the  ca- 
prices and  inclemencies  of  weather  and  climate ;  and 
that,  if  he  begins  responsible  life  without  other  means 
than  those  he  finds  in  his  own  clear  head  and  strong 
arms,  with  those  of  his  helpmeet,  he  must  expect  to 
struggle  through  years  of  poverty,  frugality,  and  re- 
solute, persistent,  industry,  before  he  can  reasonably 
hope  to  attain  a  position  of  independence,  comfort, 
and  comparative  leisure.  I  know  that  much  of  his 
work  is  rugged,  and  some  of  it  absolutely  repulsive ; 
I  know  that  he  will  seem,  even  with  unbroken  good 
fortune,  to  be  making  money  much  more  slowly  than 
his  neighbor,  the  merchant,  the  broker,  or  eloquent 
lawyer,  who  fills  the  general  eye  while  he  prospers, 
and,  when  he  fails,  sinks  out  of  sight  and  is  soon  for- 
gotten ;  and  yet,  I  should  have  advised  my  sons  to 
choose  farming  as  their  vocation,  for  these  among 
other  reasons : 

I.  There  is  no  other  business  in  which  success  is  so 
nearly  certain  as  in  this.     Of  one  hundred  men  who 


THE  FARMER'S  CALLING.  185 

embark  in  trade,  a  careful  observer  reports  that 
ninety-five  fail;  and,  while  I  think  this  proportion 
too  large,  I  am  sure  that  a  large  majority  do,  and 
must  fail,  because  competition  is  so  eager  and  traffic 
so  enormously  overdone.  If  ten  men  endeavor  to 
support  their  families  by  merchandise  in  a  township 
which  affords  adequate  business  for  but  three,  it  is 
certain  that  a  majority  must  fail,  no  matter  how 
judicious  their  management  or  how  frugal  their  liv- 
ing. But  you  may  double  the  number  of  farmers  in 
any  agricultural  county  I  ever  traversed,  without 
necessarily  dooming  one  to  failure,  or  even  abridging 
his  gains.  If  half  the  traders  and  professional  men  in 
this  country  were  to  betake  themselves  to  farming  to- 
morrow, they  would  not  render  that  pursuit  one 
whit  less  profitable,  while  they  would  largely  increase 
the  comfort  and  wealth  of  the  entire  community ; 
and,  while  a  good  merchant,  lawyer,  or  doctor,  may 
be  starved  out  of  any  township,  simply  because  the 
work  he  could  do-well  is  already  confided  to  others,  I 
never  yet  heard  of  a  temperate,  industrious,  intelli- 
gent, frugal,  and  energetic  farmer  who  failed  to  make 
a  living,  or  who,  unless  prostrated  by  disease  or  dis- 
abled by  casualty,  was  precluded  from  securing  a 
modest  independence  before  age  and  decrepitude  di- 
vested him  of  the  ability  to  labor. 

II.  I  regard  farming  as  that  vocation  which  con- 
duces most  directly  and  palpably  to  a  reverence  for 
Honesty  and  Truth.  The  young  lawyer  is  often  con- 
strained, or  at  least  tempted,  by  his  necessities,  to  do 


186  WHAT   I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

the  dirty  professional  work  of  a  rascal  intent  on 
cheating  his  neighbor  out  of  his  righteous  dues. 
The  young  doctor  may  be  likewise  incited  to  resort 
to  a  quackery  he  despises  in  order  to  secure  instant 
bread ;  the  unknown  author  is  often  impelled  to 
write  what  will  sell  rather  than  what  the  public  ought 
to  buy ;  but  the  young  farmer,  acting  as  a  farmer, 
must  realize  that  his  success  depends  upon  his  abso- 
lute verity  and  integrity.  He  deals  directly  with 
Nature,  which  never  was  and  never  will  be  cheated. 
He  has  no  temptation  to  sow  beach  sand  for  plaster, 
dock-seed  for  clover,  or  stoop  to  any  trick  or  juggle 
whatever.  "  Whatsoever  a  man  soweth  that  shall  he 
also  reap,"  while  true,  in  the  long  run,  of  all  men,  is 
instantly  and  palpably  true  as  to  him.  When  he, 
having  grown  his  crop,  shall  attempt  to  sell  it — in 
other  words,  when  he  ceases  to  be  a  farmer  and  be- 
comes a  trader — he  may  possibly  be  tempted  into 
one  of  the  many  devious  ways  of  rascality ;  but,  so 
long  as  he  is  acting  simply  as  a  farmer,  he  can  hardly 
be  lured  from  the  broad,  straight  highway  of  integrity 
and  righteousness. 

III.  The  farmer's  calling  seems  to  me  that  most 
conducive  to  thorough  manliness  of  character.  No- 
body expects  him  to  cringe,  or  smirk,  or  curry  favor, 
in  order  to  sell  his  produce.  No  merchant  refuses  to 
buy  it  because  his  politics  are  detested  or  his  reli- 
gious opinions  heterodox.  He  may  be  a  Mormon,  a 
Rebel,  a  Millerite,  or  a  Communist,  yet  his  Grain  or 
his  Pork  will  sell  for  exactly  what  it  is  worth — not  a 


THE  FARMER'S  CALLING.  187 

fraction  less  or  more  than  the  price  commanded  by 
the  kindred  product  of  like  quality  and  intrinsic 
value  of  his  neighbor,  whose  opinions  on  all  points 
are  faultlessly  orthodox  and  popular.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  merchant,  the  lawyer,  the  doctor,  espe- 
cially if  young  and  still  struggling  dubiously  for  a 
position,  are  continually  tempted  to  sacrifice  or  sup- 
press their  profoundest  convictions  in  deference  to 
the  vehement  and  often  irrational  prepossessions  of 
the  community,  whose  favor  is  to  them  the  breath  of 
life.  "  She  will  find  that  that  won't  go  down  here," 
was  the  comment  of  an  old  woman  on  a  Mississippi 
steamboat,  when  told  that- the  plain,  deaf  stranger, 
who  seemed  the  focus  of  general  interest,  was  Miss 
Martineau,  the  celebrated  Unitarian  ;  and  in  so  say- 
ing she  gave  expression  to  a  feeling  which  pervades 
and  governs  many  if  not  most  communities.  I  doubt 
whether  the  social  intolerance  of  adverse  opinions  is 
more  vehement  anywhere  else  than  throughout  the 
larger  portion  of  our  own  country.  I  have  repeatedly 
been  stung  by  the  receipt  of  letters  gravely  inform- 
ing me  that  my  course  and  views  on  a  current  topic 
were  adverse  to  public  opinion :  the  writers  evidently 
assuming,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  I  was  a  mere 
jumping-jack,  who  only  needed  to  know  what  other 
people  thought  to  insure  my  instant  and  abject  con- 
formity to  their  prejudices.  Yery  often,  in  other 
days,  I  was  favored  with  letters  from  indignant  sub- 
scribers, who,  dissenting  from  my  views  on  some 
question,  took  this  method  of  informing  me  that  they 


188  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

should  no  longer  take  my  journal — a  superfluous 
trouble,  which  could  only  have  meant  dictation  or 
insult,  since  they  had  only  to  refrain  from  renewing 
their  subscriptions,  and  their  Tribune  would  stop 
coming,  whenever  they  should  have  received  what 
we  owed  them  ;  and  it  would  in  no  case  stop  till 
then.  That  a  journalist  was  in  any  sense  a  public 
teacher — that  he  necessarily  had  convictions,  and  was 
not  likely  to  suppress  them  because  they  Were  not 
shared  by  others — in  short,  that  his  calling  was  other 
and  higher  than  that  of  a  waiter  at  a  restaurant,  ex- 
pected to  furnish  whatever  was  called  for,  so  long  as 
the  pay  was  forthcoming' — these  ex-subscribers  had 
evidently  not  for  one  moment  suspected.  That  such 
persons  have  little  or  no  capacity  to  insult,  is  very 
true ;  and  yet,  a  man  is  somewhat  degraded  in  his 
own  regard  by  learning  that  his  vocation  is  held  in 
such  low  esteem  by  others.  The  true  farmer  is 
proudly  aware  that  it  is  quite  otherwise  with  his  pur- 
suit— that  no  one  expects  him  to  swallow  any  creed, 
support  any  party,  or  defer  to  any  prejudice,  as  a 
condition  precedent  to  the  sale  of  his  products. 
Hence,  I  feel  that  it  is  easier  and  more  natural  in  his 
pursuit  than  in  any  other  for  a  man  to  work  for  a 
living,  and  aspire  to  success  and  consideration,  with- 
out sacrificing  self-respect,  compromising  integrity, 
or  ceasing  to  be  essentially  and  thoroughly  a  gentle- 
man. 


XXXII. 

A   LESSON   OF   TO-DAY. 

THE  current  season  is  quite  commonly  character- 
ized as  the  coldest,  the  hottest,  the  wettest,  or  the 
dryest,  that  was  ever  known.  Men  undoubtingly 
assert  that  they  never  knew  a  Summer  so  hot,  or  a 
Winter  so  cold,  when  in  fact  several  such  have  oc- 
curred within  the  cycle  of  their  experience.  Hardly 
anything  else  is  so  easily  or  so  speedily  forgotten  as, 
extremes  of  temperature  or  inclemencies  of  weather, 
after  they  have  passed  away.  I  presume  there  have 
been  six  to  ten  Summers,  since  the  beginning  of  this 
century,  as  hot  and  as  dry  as  that  of  1870 ;  yet  the 
fact  remains  that,  'throughout  the  Eastern  section 
of  our  country,  to  say  nothing  of  the  rest,  the  heat 
and  drouth  of  the  current  Summer  have  been 
quite  remarkable.  For  two  months  past,  counting 
from  the  10th  of  June,  nearly  every  day  has  been 
a  hot  one,  with  blazing  sunshine  throughout,  rarely 
interrupted  and  slightly  modified  by  infrequent 
and  inadequate  showers ;  and,  as  a  general  result 
of  this  tropical  fervor,  the  earth  is  parched  and 
baked  from  ten  to  forty  inches  from  the  surface ; 

(189) 


190  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

streams  and  ponds  are  dried  up  or  shrunk  to  their 
lowest  dimensions;  forests  are  often  ravaged  and 
desolated  by  fires  ;  our  pastures  are  dry  and  brown ; 
while  crops  of  Hay,  Oats,  Potatoes,  Buckwheat,  etc., 
either  have  proved,  or  certainly  must  prove,  a  disap- 
pointment to  the  hopes  of  the  growers.  I  estimate 
the  average  product  for  1870  of  the  farms  of  New- 
England,  eastern  New-York  and  New-Jersey,  as  not 
more  than  two-thirds  of  a  full  harvest ;  while  the 
earth  remains  at  this  moment  so  baked  and  incrusted 
that  several  days'  rain  is  needed  to  fit  it  for  Fall 
plowing  and  the  sowing  of  Winter  grain. 

Such  seasons  must  not  be  regarded  as  extraordin- 
ary. The  Summer  of  1854  was  nearly  or  quite  as  dry 
as  this  ;  and  I  presume  one  or  two  such  have  inter- 
vened since  that  time.  The  heat  of  1870  is  remarka- 
ble for  its  persistence  rather  than  its  intensity. 
Every  Summer  has  its  heated  term  ;  that  of  1870 
has  been  longer  in  this  region  than  any  before  it 
that  I  can  remember,  though  doubtless  the  recollec- 
tion of  others  might  supply  its  perfect  counterpart. 
Nearly  every  Summer  has  its  drouth ;  the  present  is 
peculiar  rather  for  its  early  commencement  than 
its  extreme  duration.  As  our  country  is  more  and 
more  denuded  of  its  primitive  forests,  drouths  longer 
and  severer  even  than  this  may  naturally  be  expect- 
ed. What  our  farmers  have  to  do  is,  to  prepare  for 
and  provide  against  them. 

Such  seasons  are  disastrous  to  those  only  who  farm 
as  if  none  such  were  to  be  expected.  Those  who 


A   LESSON    OF   TO-DAY.  191 

plow  deeply,  fertilize  bountifully,  and  cultivate 
thoroughly,  need  not  fear  them,  as  fields  of  Hay  and 
Oats  already  harvested,  »nd  of  Corn  and  Potatoes 
now  hastening  to  maturity  in  almost  every  township 
of  the  suffering  region,  abundantly  attest.  I  doubt 
that  more  luxuriant  crops  of  Corn,  Tobacco,  or 
Onions,  were  ever  grown  on  the  bottom-lands  of  the 
Connecticut  Yalley  than  may  be  seen  there  to-day, 
with  failures  all  about  them,  and  under  drouth  so 
fierce  that  Blackberries  and  Whortleberries  are 
withered  when  half  grown  ;  even  the  bushes  in  some 
cases  perishing  for  lack  of  moisture. 

My  last  trip  took  me  along  the  banks  of  the  upper 
Hudson,  through  the  rugged  county  of  "Warren,  N.  Y. 
The  narrow,  irregular  intervale  of  this  mountain 
stream  appear  to  have  been  cultivated  for  the  last 
fifty  or  sixty  years  by  a  hardy  race,  who  look  mainly 
to  the  timber  of  the  wild  region  north  of  them  for  a 
subsistence.  In  such  a  district,  whatever  ministers 
to  the  sustenance  of  man  or  beast  bears  a  high  price ; 
and  Corn,  Rye,  Oats,  Buck-wheat,  Apples  and  Grass, 
are  grown  wherever  the  soil  is  not  too  rugged  or  too 
sterile  for  culture.  I  presume  half  a  crop  of  Hay  has 
been  secured  throughout  this  valley,  with  perhaps  a 
full  crop  of  Rye  where  Rye  was  sown  ;  but  of  Oats  the 
yield  will  be  considerably  less  than  that,  while  of 
Corn  and  Buckwheat  it  will  range  from  ten  bushels 
per  acre  down  to  nothing.  When  Ij  last  Summer, 
passed  through  spacious  field  after  field  of  Corn  in 
Virginia  that  would  not  mature  a  single  ear,  I  spoke 


192  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

of  it  as  something  unknown  at  the  North  ;  but  there 
are  fields  planted  to  Corn,  in  the  upper  valley  of  the 
Hudson,  that  will  not  produce  a  single  sound  ear, 
nor  one  bushel  even  of  the  shortest  and  poorest 
"  nubbins  ;"  and  alongside  of  these  are  acres  of  Buck- 
wheat, blossoming  at  an  average  hight  of  four  inches, 
and  not  likely  to  get  two  inches  higher. 

Now,  if  this  land  were  so  poor  or  so  rocky  that 
good  crops  could  not  be  extracted  from  it,  far  be  it 
from  me  to  disparage  the  agriculture  whereof  the 
results  are  so  meagre ;  but  I  am  speaking  of  a  river 
intervale  of  considerable  natural  fertility,  from 
•  which  deep  and  thorough  cultivation  would  insure 
ample  harvests,  subject  only  to  the  contingency  of 
early  frosts  in  Autumn.  Were  these  lands  fertilized 
and  cultivated  as  they  might  be,  and  as  mine  are, 
they  would  yield  30  bushels  of  Rye  or  60  of  Indian 
Corn  per  acre,  and  would  richly  repay  the  husband- 
man's outlay  and  efforts.  Now,  I  venture  to  say 
that  all  the  grain  I  saw  growing  iii  the  valley  of  the 
Hudson  through  Warren  County  will  not  return  the 
farmer  75  cents  for  each  day's  labor  expended  there- 
on, allowing  nothing  for  the  use  of  the  land. 

"  But  how  shall  we  obtain  fertilizers  ?"  I  am  often 
asked.  "  We  are  poor ;  we  can  afford  to  keep  but  few 
cattle ;  Guano,  Phosphate,  Bones,  Lime,  etc.,  are  be- 
yond our  means.  Even  if  we  could  pay  for  them,  the 
cost  of  transportation  to  our  out-of-the-way  nooks  would 
be  heavy.  ,  We  cannot  deal  with  our  lands  so  boun- 
tifully as  you  do,  but  must  be  content  to  do  as  we  can." 


A   LESSON   OF   TO-DAY.  193 

To  all  which  I  make  answer :  No  man  ever  lacked 
fertilizers  who  kept  his  eyes  wide  open  and  devoted 
two  months  of  each  Fall  and  "Winter  to  collecting 
and  preparing  them.  Wherever  swamp  muck  may 
be  had,  wherever  bogs  exist  or  flags  or  rushes  grow, 
there  are  materials  which,  carted  into  the  barn-yard 
in  Autumn  or  Winter,  may  be  drawn  out  fertilizers  in 
season  for  Corn -plan ting  next  Spring.  Wherever  a 
pond  or  slough  dries  up  in  Summer  or  Autumn,  there 
is  material  that  may  be  profitably  transformed  into 
next  year's  grass  or  grain.  In  the  absence  of  all  these 
— and  they  are  seldom  very  far  from  one  who  knows 
how  to  look  for  them — rank  weeds  of  all  sorts,  if  cut 
while  green  and  tender,  or  forest  leaves,  gathered  in 
the  Fall,  used  for  litter  in  the  stable,  and  thence 
thrown  into  the  yard,  will  serve  an  excellent  purpose. 
Nay,  more :  I  am  confident  that  the  farmer  who 
lacks  these,  but  has  access  to  a  bed  or  bank  of  simple 
clay,  may  cart  200  loads  of  it  in  November  into  an 
ordinary  farm-yard,  have  it  trampled  into  and  mixed 
with  his  manure  in  the  Winter,  and  draw  it  out  iu 
the  Spring,  excellently  fitted  to  enrich  his  sandy  or 
gravelly  land,  and  insure  him,  in  connection  with 
deep  and  thorough  culture,  a  generous  yield  of  Corn, 
even  in  such  a  season  as  the  present.  Dr.  George  B. 
Loring,  the  most  successful  farmer  in  Massachusetts, 
uses  naked  beach  sand  in  abundance  as  litter  for  his 
80  cows,  mixes  it  with  his  manure  throughout  the 
Winter,  and  draws  out  the  compound  to  fertilize  his 
clay  meadows  in  the  Spring,  with  most  satisfactory 
9 


194  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

results.  Depend  on  it,  no  man  need  lack  fertilizers 
who  begins  in  season  and  is  willing  to  work  for  them. 

And  yet  once  more  : 

From  the  hills  which  inclose  this  valley  of  the 
upper  Hudson  (and  from  ever  so  many  other  valleys 
as  well),  brooks  and  rivulets,  copious  in  Spring,  when 
their  waters  are  surcharged  and  discolored  by  the 
richest  juices  of  the  uplands,  pour  down  in  frequent 
cascades  and  dance  across  the  intervale  to  be  lost  in 
the  river.  There  is  scarcely  an  acre  of  that  intervale 
which  might  not  be  irrigated  from  these  streams  at 
a  very  moderate  outlay  of  work  at  the  season  when 
work  is  least  pressing :  the  water  thus  held  back  by 
dams  being  allowed  to  flow  thence  gently  and  equably 
across  the  intervale,  conveying  not  moisture  only,  but 
fertility  also,  to  every  plant  growing  thereon.  I  am 
confident  that  I  passed  many  places  on  the  upper 
Hudson,  as  well  as  on  the  Connecticut  and  Ammo- 
noosuc,  where  100  faithful  days'  work  providing  for 
irrigation  would  have  given  100  bushels  of  grain,  or 
10  tuns  of  hay  additional  this  year,  and  as  much  per 
annum  henceforth,  at  a  cost  of  not  more  than  two 
days'  work  in  each  year  hereafter. 

Farmers,  but  above  all  farmers'  sons,  think  of  these 
things. 


XXXHI. 

INTELLECT   IN   AGRICULTURE. 

IP  a  man  whose  capital  consists  of  the  clothes  on 
his  back,  $5  in  his  pocket,  and  an  ax  over  his  right 
shoulder,  undertakes  to  hew  for  himself  a  farm  out 
of  the  primitive  forest,  he  must  of  course  devote 
some  years  to  rugged  manual  labor,  or  he  will  fail 
of  success.  It  is  indeed  possible  that  he  should  find 
others,  even  on  the  rude  outposts  of  civilization,  who 
will  hire  them  to  teach  school,  or  serve  as  county 
clerk,  or  survey  lands,  or  do  something  else  of  like 
nature  :  thus  enabling  him  to  do  his  chopping  trees, 
and  rolling  logs,  and  breaking  up  his  stumpy  acres, 
by  proxy  ;  but  the  fair  presumption  is  that  he  will 
have  to  chop  and  log,  and  burn  off  and  fence,  and 
break  up,  by  the  use  of  his  own  proper  muscle ;  and 
he  must  be  energetic  and  frugal,  as  well  as  fortunate, 
if  he  gets  a  comfortable  house  over  his  head,  with 
forty  arable  acres  about  him,  at  the  end  of  fifteen 
years'  hard  work.  If  he  has  brains,  and  has  been 
well  educated,  he  may  possibly  shorten  this  ordeal  to 
ten  years;  but,  should  he  begin  by  fancying  hard 
work  beneath  him,  or  his  abilities  too  great  to  be 

(i95) 


196  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

squandered  in  bushwhacking,  he  is  very  likely  to 
come  out  at  the  little  end  of  the  horn,  and,  strag- 
gling back  to  some  populous  settlement,  more  needy 
and  seedy  than  when  he  set  forth  to  wrest  a  farm 
from  the  wilderness,  declare  the  pioneer's  life  one  of 
such  dreaiy,  hopeless  privation  that  no  one  who  can 
read  or  cypher  ought  ever  to  attempt  it. 

A  poor  man,  who  undertakes  to  live  by  his  wits  on 
a  farm  that  he  has  bought  on  credit,  is  not  likely  to 
achieve  a  brilliant  success;  but  the  farmer  whose 
hand  and  brain  work  in  concert  will  never  find  nor 
fancy  his  intellect  or  his  education  too  good  for  his 
calling.  He  may  very  often  discover  that  he  wasted 
months  of  his  school-days  on  what  was  ill-adapted 
to  his  needs,  and  of  little  use  in  fighting  the  actual 
battle  of  life ;  but  he  will  at  the  same  time  have 
ample  reason  to  lament  the  meagerness  and  the 
deficiency  of  his  knowledge. 

I  hold  our  average  Common  Schools  defective,  in 
that  they  fail  to  teach  Geology  and  Chemistry,  which 
in  my  view  are  the  natural  bases  of  a  sound,  practical 
knowledge  of  things — knowledge  which  the  farmer, 
of  all  men,  can  least  afford  to  miss.  However  it 
may  be  with  others,  he  vitally  needs  to  understand 
the  character  and  constitution  of  the  soil  he  must 
cultivate,  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed,  and 
the  laws  which  govern  their  relations  to  each  other. 
Instruct  him  in  the  higher  mathematics  if  you  will, 
in  logic,  in  meteorology,  in  ever  so  many  languages ; 
but  not  till  he  shall  have  been  thoroughly  grounded 


INTELLECT    IN    AGRICULTURE.  197 

in  the  sciences  which  unlock  for  him  the  arcana  of 
Nature ;  for  these  are  intimately  related  to  all  he 
must  do,  and  devise,  and  direct,  throughout  the  whole 
course  of  his  active  career.  Whatever  he  may  learn 
or  dispense  with,  a  knowledge  of  these  sciences  is 
among  the  most  urgent  of  his  life-long  needs. 

Hence,  I  would  suggest  that  a  simple,  lucid,  lively, 
accurate  digest  of  the  leading  principles  and  facts  in 
Geology  and  Chemistry,  and  their  application  to  the 
practical  management  of  a  farm,  ought  to  constitute 
the  Reader  of  the  highest  class  in  every  Common 
School,  especially  in  rural  districts.  Leave  out  details 
and  recipes,  with  directions  when  to  plant  or  sow, 
etc. ;  for  these  must  vary  with  climates,  circumstances, 
and  the  progress  of  knowledge ;  but  let  the  body  and 
bones,  so  to  speak,  of  a  primary  agricultural  educa- 
tion be  taught  in  every  school,  in  such  terms  and 
with  such  clearness  as  to  commend  them  to  the  un- 
derstanding of  every  pupil.  I  never  yet  visited  a 
school  in  which  something  was  not  taught  which 
might  be  omitted  or  postponed  in  favor  of  this. 

Out  of  school  and  after  school,  let  the  young  farmer 
delight  in  the  literature  illustrative  of  his  calling — I 
mean  the  very  best  of  it.  Let  him  have  few  agricul- 
tural books ;  but  let  these  treat  of  principles  and  laws 
rather  than  of  methods  and  applications.  Let  him 
learn  from  these  how  to  ascertain  by  experiment  what 
are  the  actual  and  pressing  needs  of  his  soil,  and  he 
will  readily  determine  by  reflection  and  inquiry  how 
those  needs  may  be  most  readily  and  cheaply  satisfied. 


198  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING.  ' 

All  the  books  in  the  world  never  of  themselves 
made  one  good  farmer ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  no 
man  in  this  age  can  be  a  thoroughly  good  farmer 
without  the  knowledge  which  is  more  easily  and 
rapidly  acquired  from  books  than  otherwise.  Books 
are  no  substitute  for  open-eyed  observation  and  prac- 
tical experience ;  but  they  enable  one  familiar  with 
their  contents  to  observe  with  an  accuracy,  and  ex- 
periment with  an  intelligence,  that  are  unattainable 
without  them.  The  very  farmer  who  tells  you  that 
he  never  opened  a  book  which  treats  of  Agriculture, 
and  never  wants  to  see  one,  will  ask  his  neighbor 
how  to  grow  or  cure  tobacco,  or  hops,  or  sorgho,  or 
any  crop  with  which  he  is  yet  unacquainted,  when 
the  chances  are  a  hundred  to  one  that  this  particular 
neighbor  cannot  advise  him  so  well  as  the  volume 
which  embodies  the  experience  of  a  thousand  culti- 
vators of  this  very  plant  instead  of  barely  one.  A 
good  book  treating  practically  of  Agriculture,  or  of 
some  department  therein,  is  simply  a  compendium 
of  the  experience  of  past  ages  combined  with  such 
knowledge  as  the  present  generation  have  been  en- 
abled to  add  thereto.  It  may  be  faulty  or  defective 
on  some  points ;  it  is  not  to  be  blindly  confided  in, 
nor  slavishly  followed — it  is  to  be  mastered,  discussed, 
criticised,  and  followed  so  far  as  its  teachings  coincide 
with  the  dictates  of  science,  experience,  and  common 
sense.  Its  true  office  is  suggestion  ;  the  good  farmer 
will  lean  upon  and  trust  it  as  an  oracle  only  where 
his  own  proper  knowledge  proves  entirely  deficient. 


INTELLECT   IN    AGRICULTURE.  199 

By-and-by,  it  will  be  generally  realized  that  few 
men  live  or  have  lived  who  cannot  find  scope  and 
profitable  employment  for  all  their  intellect  on  a  two- 
hundred-acre  farm.  And  then  the  farmer  will  select 
the  brightest  of  his  sons  to  follow  him  in  the  manage- 
ment and  cultivation  of  the  paternal  acres,  leaving 
those  of  inferior  ability  to  seek  fortune  in  pursuits 
for  which  a  limited  and  special  capacity  will  serve,  if 
not  suffice.  And  then  we  shall  have  an  Agriculture 
worthy  of  our  country  and  the  age. 

Meantime,  let  us  make  the  most  of  what  we  have, 
by  diffusing,  studying,  discussing,  criticizing,  Liebig's 
Agricultural  Chemistry,  Dana's  Muck  Manual,  "War- 
ing's  Elements,  and  the  books  that  each  treat  more 
especially  of  some  department  of  the  farmer's  art, 
and  so  making  ourselves  familiar,  first,  with  the 
principles,  then  with  the  methods,  of  scientific,  effi- 
cient, successful  husbandry.  Let  us,  who  love  it, 
treat  Agriculture  as  the  elevated,  ennobling  pursuit 
it  might  and  should  be,  and  thus  exalt  it  in  the  esti- 
mation of  the  entire  community. 

"We  may,  at  all  events,  be  sure  of  this :  Just  so 
fast  and  so  far  as  farming  is  rendered  an  intellectual 
pursuit,  it  will  attract  and  retain  the  strongest  minds, 
the  best  abilities,  of  the  human  race.  It  has  been 
widely  shunned  and  escaped  from,  mainly  because  it 
has  seemed  a  calling  in  which  only  inferior  capacities 
were  required  or  would  be  rewarded.  Let  this  error 
give  place  to  the  truth,  and  Agriculture  will  win  vo- 
taries from  among  the  brightest  intellects  of  the  race. 


XXXIY. 

SHEEP   AIJTD   WOOL-GBOWING. 

OUES  is  eminently  an  agricultural  country.  We 
produce  most  of  our  Food,  and  export  much  more 
than  we  import  of  both  Grain  and  Meat.  Of  Cotton, 
we  grow  some  Three  Millions  of  bales  annually, 
whereof  we  export  fully  two-thirds.  But  of  this  we 
reimport  a  portion  in  the  shape  of  Fabrics  and  of 
Thread;  and  yet,  while  we  are  largely  clothed  in 
Woolens,  and  extensive  sections  of  our  country  are 
admirably  adapted  to  the  rearing  of  Sheep  and  the 
production  of  Wool,  we  not  only  import  a  consider- 
able share  of  the  Woolens  in  which  we  are  clad,  but 
we  also  import  a  considerable  proportion  of  the  Wool 
wherefrom  we  manufacture  the  Woolens  fabricated 
on  our  own  soil.  In  other  words:  while  we  are  a 
nation  of  farmers  and  herdsmen,  we  fail  to  grow  so 
much  Wool  as  is  needed  to  shield  us  against  the 
caprices  and  inclemencies  of  our  diverse  but  generally 
fitful  climates. 

There  is  a  seeming  excuse  for  this  in  the  fact  that 
extensive  regions  in  South  America  and  Australia 
are  devoted  to  Sheep-growing  where  animals  are 
(200) 


BHEEP   AND    WOOL-GROWIXG.  201 

neither  housed  nor  herded,  and  where  they  are  ex- 
clusively fed,  at  all  seasons,  on  those  native  grasses 
which  are  the  spontaneous  products  of  the  soil.  I 
presume  Wool  is  in  those  regions  produced  cheaper 
than  it  can  permanently  be  on  any  considerable  area 
of  our  own  soil ;  and  yet  I  believe  that  the  United 
States  should,  and  profitably  might,  grow  as  much 
Wool  as  is  needed  for  their  own  large  annual  con- 
sumption. Here  are  my  reasons : 

I.  When  the  predominant  interest  of  British  Man- 
ufactures constrained  the  entire  repeal  of  the  duties 
on  imported  Wool,  whereby  Sheep-growing  had  pre- 
viously been  protected,  the  farmers  apprehended  that 
they  must  abandon  that  department  of  their  industry  ; 
but  the  event  proved  this  calculation  a  mistake.  They 
grow  more  Sheep  and  at  better  profit  to-day  than  they 
did  when  their  Wool  brought  a  higher  price  under 
the  influence  of  Protective  duties,  because  the  largely 
increased  price  of  their  Mutton  more  than  makes  up 
to  them  their  loss  by  the  reduced  prices  of  their  Wool. 
So,  while  I  do  not  expect  that  American  Wool  will 
ever  again  command  such  high  prices  as  it  has  done 
at  some  periods  in  the  past,  I  am  confident  that  the 
general  appreciation  in  the  prices  of  Meat,  which  has 
occurred  within  the  last  ten  or  fifteen  years,  and 
which  seems  likely  to  be  enduring,  will  render  Sheep- 
growing  more  profitable  in  the  future  than  it  has 
been  in  the  past.  At  all  events,  while  our  farmers 
are  generally  obliged  to  sell  their  Grain  and  Meat  at 
prices  somewhat  below  the  range  of  the  British  mar- 


202  WHAT  I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

kets,  it  is  hardly  conceivable  that  they  should  not 
afford  to  grow  Wool,  for  which  they  receive  higher 
average  prices  than  the  British  farmers  do,  who  feed 
their  Sheep  on  the  produce  of  lands  worth  from  $300 
to  $500  (gold)  per  acre, 

II.  Interest  being  relatively  high  in  this  country, 
and  Capital  with  most  farmers  deficient,  it  is  a  serious 
objection  to  cattle-growing  that  the  farmer  must  wait 
three  or  four  years  before  receiving  a  return  for  his 
outlay.     If  he  begins  poor,  with  but  a  few  cows  and 
a  team,  he  naturally  wants  to  rear  and  keep  all  his 
calves  for  several  years  in  order  to  adequately  stock 
his  farm,  so  that  little  or  no  income  is  meantime 
realized  from  his  herd ;  whereas  a  flock  of  Sheep 
yields  a  fleece  per  head  each  year,  though  not  even  a 
lamb  is  sold,  while  its  increase  in  numbers  is  far  more 
rapid  than  that  of  a  herd  of  cattle. 

III.  Almost  every  farmer,  at  least  in  the  old  States, 
finds  some  part  of  his  land  infested  with  bushes  and 
briers,  which  seem  to  flourish  by  cutting,  if  he  finds 
time  to  cut  them,  and  which  the  ruggedness  of  his 
soil  precludes  his  exterminating  by  the  plow.     In 
every  such  case,  Sheep  are  his  natural  allies — his  un- 
paid police — his  vigilant  and  thorough-going  assist- 
ants.    Give  them  an  even  start  in  Spring  with  the 
bushes  and  briers;  let  their  number  be  sufficient; 
and  they  are  very  sure  to  come  out  ahead  in  the 
Fall. 

IV.  Our  fanners  in  the  average  are  too  much  con- 
fined in  Summer  and  Autumn  to  salt  meats,  and  es- 


8HEEP    AND   WOOL-GROWING, 

pecially  to  Pork.  However  excellent  in  quality  these 
may  be,  their  exclusive  use  is  neither  healthful  nor 
palatable.  With  a  good  flock  of  Sheep,  the  most  se- 
cluded farmer  may  have  fresh  meat  every  week  in 
haying  and  harvest-time  if  he  chooses ;  and  he  will 
find  this  better  for  his  family,  and  more  satisfactory 
to  his  workmen,  than  a  diet  wherefrom  fresh  meat  is 
excluded. 

Y.  Now,  I  do  not  insist  that  every  farmer  should 
grow  Sheep,  for  I  know  that  many  are  so  situated 
that  they  cannot.  In  stony  regions,  where  walls  are 
very  generally  relied  on  for  fences,  I  am  aware  that 
Sheep  are  with  difficulty  kept  within  bounds;  and 
this  is  a  serious  objection.  In  the  neighborhood  of 
cities  and  large  villages,  where  Fresh  Meat  may  be 
bought  from  day  to  day,  one  vah'd  reason  for  keep- 
ing them  has  no  application  ;  yet  I  hold  that  twice 
as  many  of  our  farmers  as  now  have  flocks  ought  to 
have  them,  and  would  thereby  increase  their  profits 
as  well  as  the  comfort  of  their  families. 

The  most  serious  obstacle  to  Sheep  husbandry  in 
this  country  is  the  abundance  and  depredations  of 
dogs.  Farmers  by  tens  of  thousands  have  sold  off,  or 
killed  ofi",  their  flocks,  mainly  because  they  could  not 
otherwise  protect  themselves  against  their  frequent 
decimation  by  prowling  curs,  which  \vere  not  worth 
the  powder  required  to  shoot  them.  It  seems  to  me 
that  a  farmer  thus  despoiled  is  perfectly  justifiable  in 
placing  poisoned  food  where  these  cut-throats  will  be 
apt  to  find  it  while  making  their  next  raid  on  his 


204  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Sheep.  I  should  have  no  scruple  in  so  doing,  pro- 
vided I  could  guard  effectually  against  the  poisoning 
of  any  other  than  the  culprits. 

In  a  well-settled,  thrifty  region,  where  ample 
barns  are  provided,  I  judge  that  the  losses  of  Sheep 
by  dogs  may  be  reduced  to  a  minimum  by  proper 
precautions.  Elsewhere  than  in  wild,  new  frontier 
settlements,  every  flock  of  Sheep  should  have  a  place 
of  refuge  beneath  the  hay-floor  of  a' good  barn,  and 
be  trained  to  spend  every  night  there,  as  well  as  to 
seek  this  shelter  against  every  pelting  storm.  Even 
if  sent  some  distance  to  pasture,  an  unbarred  lane 
should  connect  such  pasture  with  their  fold ;  and 
they  should  be  driven  home  for  a  few  nights,  if 
necessary,  until  they  had  acquired  the  habit  of  com- 
ing home  at  nightfall ;  and  I  am  assured  that  Sheep 
thus  lodged  will  very  rarely  be  attacked  by  dogs  or 
wolves. 

As  yet,  our  farmers  have  not  generally  realized 
that  enhancement  of  the  value  of  Mutton,  whereby 
their  British  rivals  have  profited  so  largely.  Their 
fathers  began  to  breed  Sheep  when  a  fleece  sold  for 
much  more  than  a  carcase,  and  when  fineness  and 
abundance  of  Wool  were  the  main  consideration. 
But  such  is  no  longer  the  fact,  at  least  in  the  Eastern 
and  Middle  States.  To-day,  large  and  long-wooled 
Sheep  of  the  Cotswold  and  similar  breeds  are  grown 
with  far  greater  profit  in  this  section  than  the  fine- 
wooled  Merino  and  Saxony,  except  where  choice 
specimens  of  the  latter  can  be  sold  at  high  prices  for 


SHEEP  AND  WOOL-GROWING.  205 

removal  to  Texas  and  the  Far  West.  The  growing 
of  these  high-priced  animals  must  necessarily  be  con- 
fined to  few  hands.  The  average  farmer  cannot  ex- 
pect to  sell  bucks  at  $1,000,  and  even  at  $5,000,  as 
some  have  been  sold,  or  at  least  reported.  He  must 
calculate  that  his  Sheep  are  to  be  sold,  when  sold  at 
all,  at  prices  ranging  from  $10  down  to  $5,  if  not 
lower,  so  that  mechanics  and  merchants  may  buy  and 
eat  them  without  absolute  ruin  ;  and  .he  must  realize 
that  100  pounds  of  Mutton  at  10  cents,  with  6  pounds 
of  "Wool  at  30  cents,  amount  to  more  than  60  pounds 
of  Mutton  at  8  cents,  and  10  pounds  of  Wool  at  60 
cents.  Farmers  who  grow  Sheep  for  Mutton  in  this 
vicinity,  and  manage  to  have  lambs  of  good  size  for 
sale  in  June  or  July,  assure  me  that  their  profit  on 
these  is  greater  than  on  almost  anything  else 
their  farms  will  produce ;  and  they  say  what  they 
know. 

The  satisfactory  experience  of  this  class  may  be 
repeated  to-day  in  the  neighborhood  of  any  consider- 
able city  in  the  Union.  Sheep-growing  is  no  experi- 
ment ;  it  is  an  assured  and  gratifying  success  with 
all  who  understand  and  are  fitly  placed  for  its  prose- 
cution. "Wool  may  never  again  be  so  high  as  we 
have  known  it,  since  the  Far  West  and  Texas  can 
grow  it  very  cheaply,  while  its  transportation  costs 
less  than  five  per  cent,  of  its  value,  where  that  of 
Grain  would  be  Y5  per  cent. ;  but  Mutton  is  a  whole- 
some and  generally  acceptable  meat,  whereof  the  use 
and  popularity  are  daily  increasing ;  so  that  its  mar- 


206  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

ket  value  will  doubtless  be  greater  in  the  future  than 
it  has  been  in  the  past.  I  would  gladly  incite  the 
farmers  of  our  country  to  comprehend  this  fact,  and 
act  so  as  to  profit  by  it. 

But  the  new  region  opened  to  Sheep-growing  by 
the  pioneers  of  Colorado,  and  other  Territories,  is 
destined  to  play  a  great  part  in  the  satisfaction  of  our 
need  of  Wool.  The  elevated  Plains  and  Yalleys 
which  enfold  and  embrace  the  Rocky  Mountains  are 
exceedingly  favorable  to  the  cheap  production  of 
Wool.  Their  pure,  dry,  bracing  atmosphere ;  the 
rarity  of  their  drenching  storms ;  the  fact  that  their 
soil  is  seldom  or  never  sodden  with  water ;  and  the 
excellence  of  their  short,  thin  grasses,  even  in  Winter, 
render  them  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants  of  the 
shepherd  and  his  flocks.  I  do  not  believe  in  the  wis- 
dom or  humanity,  while  I  admit  the  possibility,  of 
keeping  Sheep  without  cured  fodder  on  the  Plains  or 
elsewhere ;  on  the  contrary,  I  would  have  ample  and 
effective  shelter  against  cold  and  wet  provided  for 
every  flock,  with  Hay,  or  Grain,  or  Roots,  or  some- 
what of  each  of  them,  for  at  least  two  months  of  each 
year  ;  but,  even  thus,  I  judge  that  fine  Wool  can  be 
grown  in  Colorado  or  Wyoming  far  cheaper  than  in 
New  England  or  even  Minnesota,  and  of  better  quality 
than  in  Texas  or  South  America.  And  I  am  griev- 
ously mistaken  if  Sheep  husbandry  is  not  about  to  be 
developed  on  the  Plains  with  a  rapidity  and  success 
which  have  no  American  precedent. 


XXXY. 

ACCOUNTS   IN  FARMING. 

FARMERS,  it  is  urged,  sometimes  fail ;  and  this  is 
unfortunately  true  of  them,  as  of  all  others.  Some 
fail  in  integrity ;  others  in  sobriety ;  many  in  ca- 
pacity ;  most  in  diligence  ;  but  not  a  few  in  method 
or  system.  Quite  a  number  fail  because  they  under- 
take too  much  at  the  outset ;  that  is,  they  run  into 
debt  for  more  land  than  they  have  capital  to  stock 
or  means  to  fertilize,  and  are  forced  into  bankruptcy 
by  the  interest  ever-accruing  upon  land  which  they 
are  unable  to  cultivate.  If  they  should  get  ahead  a 
little  by  active  exertion  throughout  the  day,  the  in- 
terest would  overtake  and  pass  them  during  the  en- 
suing night. 

Few  of  the  unsuccessful  realize  the  extent  to  which 
their  ill  fortune  is  fairly  attributable  to  their  own 
waste  of  time.  Men  not  naturally  lazy  squander 
hours  weekly  in  the  village,  or  at  the  railroad  station, 
without  a  suspicion  that  they  are  thus  destroying 
their  chances  of  success  in  life.  To-day  is  given  up 
to  a  monkey-show ;  half  of  to-morrow  is  lost  in  at- 
tendance on  an  auction  ;  part  of  next  day  is  spent  at 

(207) 


208  WHAT  I   KNOW  OF  FARMING. 

a  caucus  or  a  jury  trial ;  and  so  on  until  one-third  of 
the  year  is  virtually  wasted. 

Now,  the  men  who  have  achieved  eminent  success, 
within  my  observation,  have  all  been  rigid  economists 
of  time.  They  managed  to  transact  their  business  at 
the  county-seat  while  serving  there  as  grand  or  petit 
jurors,  or  detained  under  subposna  as  witnesses ;  they 
never  attended  an  auction  unless  they  really  needed 
something  which  was  there  to  be  sold,  and  then  they 
began  their  day's  work  earlier  and  ended  it  later  in 
order  to  redeem  the  time  which  they  borrowed  for 
the  sale.  I  do  not  believe  that  any  American  farmer 
who  could  count  up  three  hundred  full  days'  work  in 
every  year  between  his  twenty-first  and  his  thirtieth 
ever  yet  failed,  except  as  a  result  of  speculation,  or 
endorsing,  or  inordinate  running  into  debt. 

I  would,  therefore,  urge  every  farmer  to  keep  a 
rigid  account  current  of  the  disposal  of  his  time,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  see  at  the  year's  end  exactly  how 
many  days  thereof  he  had  given  to  productive  labor  ; 
how  many  to  such  abiding  improvements  as  fencing 
and  draining ;  and  how  many  to  objects  which  neither 
increased  his  crop  nor  improved  his  farm.  I  am  sure 
many  would  be  amazed  at  the  extent  of  this  last 
category. 

If  every  youth  who  expects  to  live  by  farming 
would  buy  a  cheap  pocket-book  or  wallet  which  con- 
tains a  diary  wherein  a  page  is  allotted  to  each  day 
of  the  year,  and  would,  at  the  close  of  that  day,  or  at 
least  while  its  incidents  were  still  fresh  in  his  mind, 


ACCOUNTS    m   FARMING.  209 

set  down  under  its  proper  head  whatever  incidents 
were  most  noteworthy — as,  for  instance,  a  soaking 
rain ;  a  light  or  heavy  shower ;  a  slight  or  killing 
frost ;  a  fall  of  snow ;  a  hurricane ;  a  hail-storm ;  a 
gale ;  a  decidedly  hot  or  notably  cold  temperature ; 
the  turning  out  of  cattle  to  pasture  or  sheltering  them 
against  the  severity  of  "Winter ;  also  the  planting  or 
sowing  of  each  crop  or  field,  and  whether  harm  was 
done  to  it  by  frost  in  its  .infancy  or  when  it  ap- 
proached maturity — he  would  thus  provide  himself 
with  annual  volumes  of  fact  which  would  prove  in- 
structive and  valuable  throughout  his  maturer  years. 

The  good  farmer  will  of  course  keep  accounts  with 
such  of  his  neighbors  as  he  sees  fit  to  deal  with ;  and 
he  ought  to  charge  a  lent  or  credit  a  borrowed  plow, 
harrow,  reaper,  log-chain,  or  other  implement,  pre- 
cisely as  though  it  were  meal  or  meat  of  an  equal 
value.  I  judge  that  borrowed  implements,  if  regu- 
larly charged  at  cost,  and  credited  at  their  actual 
value  when  returned,  would  generally  come  home 
sooner  and  in  better  condition. 

But  the  farmer,  like  every  one  else,  should  be  most 
careful  to  keep  debt  and  credit  with  himself  and  his 
farm.  If  a  dollar  is  spent  or  lent,  his  books  should 
show  it;  and  let  items  and  sum  total  stare  him  in  the 
face  when  he  strikes  a  balance  at  the  close  of  the 
year.  If  there  has  been  no  leakage  either  of  dimes 
or  of  hours,  he  will  seldom  be  poorer  on  the  31st  of 
December  than  he  was  on  the  1st  of  the  preceding 
January. 


210  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Most  farmers  fail  to  keep  accounts  with  their 
several  fields  and  crops ;  yet  what  could  be  more  in- 
structive than  these?  Here  are  ten  acres  of  Corn, 
with  a  yield  of  20  to  40  bushels  per  acre — a  like  area 
and  like  yield  of  Oats ;  a  smaller  or  larger  of  Rye, 
Buckwheat,  or  Beans,  as  the  case  may  be.  If  the 
produce  is  sold,  most  farmers  know  how  much  it 
brings ;  but  how  many  know  how  much  it  cost  ? 
Say  the  Corn  brings  75  cents  per  bushel,  and  the  Oats 
50  cents  :  was  either  or  both  produced  at  a  profit  ? 
If  so,  at  what  profit?  Here  is  a  farmer  who  has 
grown  from  100  to  300  bushels  of  Corn  per  annum 
for  the  last  20  years ;  ought  he  not  to  know  by  this 
time  what  Corn  costs  him  in  the  average,  and  whether 
it  could  or  could  not  with  profit  give  place  to  some- 
thing else  ?  Most  farmers  grow  some  crops  at  a 
profit,  others  at  a  loss ;  ought  they  not  to  know,  after 
an  experience  of  five  or  ten  years,  what  crops  have 
put  money  into  their  pockets,  and  what  have  made 
them  poorer  for  the  growing  ? 

Of  course,  there  is  complication  and  some  degree 
of  uncertainty  in  all  such  account-keeping  ;  for  every 
one  is  aware  that  some  crops  take  more  from  the  soil 
than  others,  and  so  leave  it  in  a  worse  condition  for 
those  that  are  to  follow,  and  that  some  exact  large 
reinforcements  of  fertilizers,  whereof  a  part  only  is 
fairly  chargeable  to  the  first  ensuing  product,  while  a 
large  share  inures  to  the  subsequent  harvests.  Each 
must  judge  for  himself  how  much  is  to  be  credited 
for  such  improvement,  and  how  much  charged 


ACCOUNTS   EN   FARMING.  211 

against  other  crops  for  deterioration.  He,  for  ex- 
ample, whose  meadows  will  cut  from  two  to  three 
tuns  per  acre  of  good  English  Hay  may  generally  sell 
that  Hay  for  twice  if  not  thrice  the  immediate  cost 
of  its  production,  and  so  seem  to  be  realizing  a  large 
profit ;  but,  if  he  gives  nothing  to  the  soil  in  return 
for  the  heavy  draft  thus  made  upon  it,  his  crop  will 
dwindle  year  by  year,  until  it  will  hardly  pay  for 
cutting  ;  and  the  diminution  in  value  of  his  meadows 
will  nearly  or  quite  balance  the  seeming  profit  accru- 
ing from  his  Hay.  But  account-keeping  in  every 
business  involves  essentially  identical  calculations; 
and  the  merchant  who  this  year  makes  no  net  profit 
on  his  goods,  but  doubles  the  number  of  his  custom- 
ers and  the  extent  of  his  trade,  has  thriven  pre- 
cisely as  has  the  farmer  whose  profit  on  his  crops  has 
all  been  invested  in  drains  permeating  his  bogs,  and 
in  Lime,  Plaster,  and  other  fertilizers,  applied  to  and 
permanently  enriching  his  dryer  fields. 

11  To  make  each  day  a  critic  on  the  last,"  was  the 
aspiration  of  a  wise  man,  if  not  a  great  poet.  So  the 
farmer  who  will  keep  careful  and  candid  accounts 
with  himself,  annually  correcting  his  estimates  by  the 
light  of  experience,  will  soon  learn  what  crops  he 
may  reasonably  expect  to  grow  at  a  profit,  and  to  re- 
ject such  as  are  likely  to  involve  him  in  loss ;  and  he 
who,  having  done  this,  shall  blend  common  sense 
with  industry,  will  have  no  reason  to  complain  there- 
after that  there  is  no  profit  in  farming,  and  no  chance 
of  achieving  wealth  by  pursuing  it. 


XXXYI. 

STONE    ON    A   FABM. 

THIS  earth,  geologists  say,  was  once  an  immense 
expanse  of  heated  vapor,  which,  gradually  cooling  at 
its  surface,  as  it  whirled  and  sped  through  space,  con- 
tracted and  formed  a  crust,  which  we  know  as  Rock 
or  Stone.  This  crust  has  since  been  broken  through, 
and  tilted  up  into  ranges  of  mountains  and  hills,  by 
the  action  of  internal  fires,  by  the  transmutation  jof 
solid  bodies  into  more  expansive  gases ;  and  the  frag- 
ments torn  away  from  the  sharper  edges  of  upheaved 
masses  of  granite,  quartz,  or  sandstone,  having  been 
frozen  into  icebergs  floating,  or  soon  to  be  so,  have 
been  carried  all  over  the  surface  of  our  planet,  and 
dropped  upon  the  greater  part,  as  those  icebergs  were 
ultimately  resolved,  by  a  milder  temperature,  into 
flowing  water.  "When  the  seas  were  afterward  re- 
duced nearly  or  quite  to  their  present  limits,  and  the 
icebergs  restricted  to  the  frigid  zones  and  their  vicin- 
ity, streams  had  to  make  their  way  down  the  sides  of 
the  mountains  and  hills  to  the  subjacent  valleys  and 
plains,  sweeping  along  not  merely  sand  and  gravel, 
but  bowlders  also,  of  every  size  and  form,  and  some- 

(212) 


'STONE  ON  A  FARM.  213 

times  great  rocks  as  well,  by  the  force  of  their  im- 
petuous currents.  And,  as  a  very  large,  if  not  the 
larger  portion  of  our  earth's  surface  bears  testimony 
to  the  existence  and  powerful  action  through  ages,  of 
larger  and  smaller  water-courses,  a  wide  and  general 
diffusion  of  stones,  not  in  place,  but  more  or  less  trit- 
urated, smoothed,  and  rounded,  by  the  action  of 
water,  was  among  the  inevitable  results. 

These  stones  are  sometimes  a  facility,  but  oftener 
an  impediment,  to  efficiency  in  agriculture.  "When 
heated  by  fervid  sunshine  throughout  the  day,  they 
retain  a  portion  of  that  heat  through  a,  part  of  the 
succeeding  night,  thereby  raising  the  temperature  of 
the  soil,  and  increasing  the  deposit  of  dew  on  the 
plants  there  growing.  When  generally  broken  .so 
finely  as  to  offer  no  impediment  to  cultivation,  they 
not  merely  absorb  heat  by  day,  to  be  given  off  by 
night,  but,  by  rendering  the  soil  open  and  porous, 
secure  a  much  more  extensive  diffusion  of  air  through 
it  than  would  otherwise  be  possible.  Thus  do  slaty 
soils  achieve  and  maintain  a  warmth  unique  in  their 
respective  latitudes,  so  as  to  ripen  grapes  further 
North,  and  at  higher  elevations,  than  would  other- 
wise be  possible. 

The  great  Prairies  of  the  West,  with  a  consider- 
able portion  of  the  valleys  and  plains  of  the  Atlantic 
slope,  expose  no  rock  at  their  surfaces,  and  little  be- 
neath them,  until  the  soil  has  been  traversed,  and 
the  vicinity  of  the  underlying  rock  in  place  fairly  at- 
tained. To  farmers  inured  to  the  perpetual  stone- 


214  WHAT   I    KNOW   OF    FAKMING. 

picking  of  New-England,  and  other  hilly  regions,  this 
is  a  most  welcome  change;  but  when  the  pioneer 
comes  to  look  about  him  for  stone  to  wall  his  cellar 
and  his  well,  to  underpin  his  barn,  and  form  the 
foundations  of  his  dwelling,  he  realizes  that  the 
bowlders  he  had  exulted  in  leaving  behind  him  were 
not  wholly  and  absolutely  a  nuisance ;  glad  as  he  was 
to  be  rid  of  them  forever,  he  would  like  now  to  call 
some  of  them  back  again. 

Yet,  the  Eastern  farmer  of  to-day  has  fewer  uses 
for  stone  than  his  grandfather  had.  He  does  not 
want  his  farm  cut  up  into  two  or  three-acre  patches, 
by  broad-based,  unsightly  walls,  which  frost  is  apt  to 
heave  year  after  year  into  greater  deformity  and  less 
efficiency ;  nor  does  he  care  longer  to  use  them  in 
draining,  since  he  must  excavate  and  replace  thrice  as 
much  earth  in  making  a  stone  as  in  making  a  tile 
drain  ;  while  the  former  affords  shelter  and  impunity 
to  rats,  mice,  and  other  mischievous,  predatory  ani- 
mals, whose  burrowing  therein  tends  constantly  to 
stimulate  its  natural  tendency  to  become  choked  with 
sand  and  earth.  Of  the  stone  drains,  constructed 
through  parts  of  my  farm  by  foremen  whose  wills 
proved  stronger  than  my  own,  but  two  remain  in  par- 
tial operation,  and  I  shall  rejoice  when  these  shall 
have  filled  themselves  up  and  been  counted  out  ever- 
more. Happily,  they  were  sunk  so  low  that  the  sub- 
soil plow  will  never  disturb  them. 

Still,  my  confidence  that  nothing  was  made  in  vain 
is  scarcely  shaken  by  the  prevalence  and  abundance 


BTONE   ON    A   FARM.  215 

of  stone  on  our  Eastern  farms.  We  may  not  have 
present  use  for  them  all ;  but  our  grandsons  will  be 
wiser  than  we,  and  have  uses  for  them  which  we 
hardly  suspect.  I  reinsist  that  land  which  is  very 
stony  was  mainly  created  with  an  eye  to  timber- 
growing,  and  that  millions  of  acres  of  such  ought 
forthwith  to  be  planted  with  Hickory,  White  Oak, 
Locust,  Chestnut,  White  Pine,  and  other  valuable 
forest-trees.  Every  acre  of  thoroughly  dry  land, 
lying  near  a  railroad,  in  the  Eastern  or  Middle 
States,  may  be  made  to  pay  a  good  interest  on  from 
$50  up  to  $100,  provided  there  be  soil  enough  above 
its  rocks  to  afford  a  decent  foothold  for  trees ;  and 
how  little  will  answer  this  purpose  none  can  imagine 
who  have  not  seen  the  experiment  tried.  Sow  thickly, 
that  you  may  begin  to  cut  out  poles  six  to  ten  feet 
long  within  three  or  four  years,  and  keep  cutting  out 
(but  never  cutting  off)  thenceforward,  until  time 
shall  be  no  more,  and  your  rocky  crests,  steep  hill-sides 
and  ravines,  will  take  rank  with  the  most  productive 
portions  of  your  farm. 

In  the  edges  of  these  woods,  you  may  deposit  the 
surplus  stones  of  the  adjacent  cultivated  fields,  in  full 
assurance  that  moth  and  rust  will  not  corrupt  nor 
thieves  break  through  and  steal,  but  that  you  and 
your  sons  and  grandsons  will  find  them  there  when- 
ever they  shall  be  needed,  as  well  as  those  you  found 
there  when  you  came  into  possession  of  the  farm. 

I  am  further  confident  that  we  shall  build  more 
and  more  with  rough,  unshapen  stone,  as  we  grow 


216  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

older  and  wiser.  In  our  harsh,  capricious  climate, 
walls  of  stone-concrete  afford  the  cheapest  and  best 
protection  alike  against  heat  and  frost,  for  our  ani- 
mals certainly,  and,  I  think,  also  for  ourselves.  Let 
the  farmer  begin  his  barn  by  making  of  stone,  laid 
in  thin  mortar,  a  substantial  basement  story,  let  into 
a  hillside,  for  his  manure  and  his  root-cellar  ;  let  him 
build  upon  this  a  second  -story  of  like  materials  for 
the  stalls  of  his  cattle ;  and  now  he  may  add  a  third 
story  and  roof  of  wood  for  his  hay  and  grain,  if  he 
sees  fit.  His  son  or  grandson  will,  probably,  take 
this  off,  and  replace  it  with  concrete  walls  and  a  slate 
roof;  or  this  may  be  postponed  until  the  original 
wooden  structure  has  rotted  off ;  but  I  feel  sure  that, 
ultimately,  the  dwellings  as  well  as  barns  of  thrifty 
farmers,  in  stony  districts,  will  mainly  be  built  of 
rough  stone,  thrown  into  a  box  and  firmly  cemented 
by  a  thin  mortar  composed  of  much  sand  and  little 
lime ;  and  that  thus  at  least  ten  thousand  tuns  of  stone 
to  each  farm  will  be  disposed  of.  It  may  be  some- 
what later  still  before  our  barn-yards,  fowl  inclosures, 
gardens,  pig-pens,  etc.,  will  be  shut  in  by  cemented 
walls ;  but  the  other  sort  affords  such  ample  and  per- 
petual lurking-places  for  rats,  minks,  weasels,  and 
all  manner  of  destructive  vermin,  that  they  are  cer- 
tain to  go  out  of  fashion  before  the  close  of  the  next 
century. 

As  to  blasting  out  Stone,  too  large  or  too  firmly 
fixed  to  be  otherwise  handled,  I  would  solve  the 
problem  by  asking,  "  Do  you  mean  to  keep  this  lot 


STONE   ON   A   FA.KM.  217 

in  cultivation?"  If  you  do,  clear  it  of  stone  from 
the  surface  upward,  and  for  at  least  two  feet  down- 
ward, though  they  be  as  large  as  haycocks,  and  as 
fixed  as  the  everlasting  hills.  Clear  your  field  of 
every  stone  bigger  than  a  goose-egg,  that  the  Plow 
or  the  Mower  may  strike  in  doing  its  work,  or  give 
it  up  to  timber,  plant  it  thoroughly,  and  leave  its 
stones  unmolested  until  you  or  your  descendants  shall 
have  a  paying  use  for  them. 

A  friend  deeply  engaged  in  lumbering  gives  me  a 
hint,  which  I  think  some  owners  of  stony  farms  will 
find  useful.  He  is  obliged  to  run  his  logs  down  shal- 
low, stony  creeks,  from  the  bottom  of  which  large 
rocks  often  protrude,  arresting  the  downward  pro- 
gress of  his  lumber.  When  the  beds  of  these  creeks 
are  nearly  dry  in  Summer,  he  goes  in,  with  two  or 
three  stout,  strong  assistants,  armed  with  crowbars 
and  levers,  and  rolls  the  stones  to  this  side  and  that, 
so  as  to  leave  a  clear  passage  for  his  logs.  Occasion- 
ally, he  is  confronted  by  a  big  fellow,  which  defies 
his  utmost  force  ;  when,  instead  of  drilling  and  blast- 
ing, he  gathers  dead  tree-tops,  and  other  dry  wood 
of  no  value,  from  the  banks,  and  builds  a  hot  fire  on 
the  top  of  each  giant  bowlder.  When  the  fire  has 
burned  out,  and  the  rock  has  cooled,  he  finds  it  soft- 
ened, and,  as  it  were,  rotten,  on  the  top,  often  split, 
and  every  way  so  demoralized  that  he  can  deal  with 
it  as  though  it  were  chalk  or  cheese.  He  estimates 
his  saving  by  this  process,  as  compared  with  drilling 
and  blasting,  as  much  more  than  fifty  per  cent.  I 
10 


218  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

trust  farmers  with  whom  wood  is  abundant,  and  big 
stones  superabundant,  will  give  this  simple  device  a 
trial.  Powder  and  drilling  cost  money,  part  of  which 
may  be  saved  by  this  expedient. 

I  have  built  some  stone  walls — at  first,  not  very 
well ;  but  for  the  last  ten  years  my  rule  has  been : 
Yery  little  fence  on  a  farm,  but  that  little  of  a  kind 
that  asks  no  forbearance  of  the  wildest  bull  that  ever 
wore  a  horn.  The  last  wall  I  built  cost  me  at  least 
$5  per  rod ;  and  it  is  worth  the  money.  Beginning 
by  plowing  its  bed  and  turning  the  two  furrows  to- 
gether, so  as  to  raise  the  ground  a  foot,  and  make  a 
shallow  ditch  on  either  side,  I  built  a  wall  thereon 
which  will  outlast  my  younger  child.  An  ordinary 
wall  dividing  a  wood  on  the  north  from  an  open  field 
of  sunny,  gravelly  loam  on  the  south,  would  have  been 
partly  thrown  down  and  wholly  twisted  out  of  shape 
in  a  few  years,  by  the  thawing  of  the  earth  under  its 
sunny  side,  while  it  remained  firm  as  a  rock  on  the 
north  ;  but  the  ground  is  always  dry  under  my  entire 
wall ;  so  nothing  freezes  there,  and  there  is  conse- 
quently nothing  to  thaw  and  let  down  my  wall.  I 
shall  be  sorely  disappointed  if  that  wall  does  not  out- 
last my  memory,  and  be  known  as  a  thorough  barrier 
to  roving  cattle  long  after  the  name  of  its  original 
owner  shall  have  been  forgotten. 


XXXVII. 

FENCES   AND   FENCING. 

THOUGH  I  have  already  indicated,  incidentally,  my 
decided  objections  to  our  prevalent  system  of  Fencing, 
I  deem  the  subject  of  such  importance  that  I  choose 
to  discuss  it  directly.  Excessive  Fencing  is  peculiarly 
an  American  abuse,  which  urgently  cries  for  reform. 

Solon  Robinson  says  the  fence-tax  is  the  heaviest 
of  our  farmer's  taxes.  I  add,  that  it  is  the  most  need- 
less and  indefensible. 

Highways  we  must  have,  and  people  must  traverse 
them ;  but  this  gives  them  no  right  to  trample  down 
or  otherwise  injure  the  crops  growing  on  either  side. 
In  France,  and  other  parts  of  Europe,  you  see  grass 
and  grain  growing  luxuriantly  up  to  the  very  edge 
of  the  beaten  tracks,  with  nothing  like  a  fence  be- 
tween them.  Yet  those  crops  are  nowise  injured  or 
disturbed  by  wayfarers.  Whoever  chooses  to  impel 
animals  along  these  roads  must  take  care  to  have 
them  completely  under  subjection,  and  must  see  that 
they  do  no  harm  to  whatever  grows  by  the  way-side. 

In  this  country,  cattle-driving,  except  on  a  small 
scale,  and  for  short  distances,  has  nearly  been  super- 

(219) 


WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Beded  by  railroads.  The  great  droves  formerly  reach- 
ing the  Atlantic  seaboard  on  foot,  from  Ohio  or  further 
West,  are  now  huddled  into  cars  and  hurried  through 
in  far  less  time,  and  with  less  waste  of  flesh  ;  but  they 
reach  us  fevered,  bruised,  and  every  way  unwhole- 
some. Every  animal  should  be  turned  out  to  grass, 
after  a  railroad  journey  of  more  than  twelve  hours, 
and  left  there  a  full  month  before  he  is  taken  to  the 
slaughter-pen.  "We  must  have  many  more  deaths  per 
annum  in  this  city  than  if  the  animals  on  which  we 
subsist  were  killed  in  a  condition  which  rendered  them 
fit  for  human  food. 

Ultimately,  our  fresh  Beef,  Mutton  and  Pork,  will 
come  to  us  from  the  Prairies  in  refrigerating  cars: 
each  animal  having  been  killed  while  in  perfect  health, 
unfevered  and  untortured  by  days  of  cramped,  galled, 
and  thirsty  suffering,  on  the  cars.  This  will  leave 
their  offal,  including  a  large  portion  of  their  bones,  to 
enrich  the  fields  whence  their  sustenance  was  drawn 
and  from  which  they  should  never  be  taken.  The  cost 
of  transporting  the  meat,  hides,  and  tallow,  in  such 
cars,  would  be  less  than  that  of  bringing  through  the 
animals  on  their  legs  ;  while  the  danger  of  putrefac- 
tion might  be  utterly  precluded. 

But  to  return  to  Fencing : 

Our  growing  plants  must  be  preserved  from  ani- 
mal ravage ;  but  it  is  most  unjust  to  impose  the  cost 
of  this  protection  on  the  growers.  Whoever  chooses 
to  rear  or  buy  animals  must  take  care  that  they  do 
not  infest  and  despoil  his  neighbors.  Whoever  sees 


FEXCE3   A  JO)   FENCING.  221 

fit  to  turn  animals  into  the  street,  should  send  some 
one  with  them  who  will  be  sure  to  keep  them  out  of 
mischief,  which  browsing  young  trees  in  a  forest 
clearly  is. 

If  the  inhabitants  of  a  settlement  or  village  sur- 
rounded by  open  prairie,  see  fit  to  pasture  their  cattle 
thereon,  they  should  send  them  out  each  morning  in 
the  charge  of  a  well-mounted  herdsmen,  whose  duty 
should  be  summed  up  in  keeping  them  from  evil- 
doing  by  day  and  bringing  them  safely  back  to  their 
yard  or  yards  at  nightfall. 

Fencing  bears  with  special  severity  on  the  pioneer 
class,  who  are  least  able  to  afford  the  outlay.  The 
"  clearing"  of  the  pioneer's  first  year  in  the  wilderness, 
being  enlarged  by  ax  and  fire,  needs  a  new  and  far 
longer  environment  next  year ;  and  so  through  sub- 
sequent years  until  clearing  is  at  an  end.  Many  a 
pioneer  is  thus  impelled  to  devote  a  large  share  of 
his  time  to  Fencing ;  and  yet  his  crops  often  come  to 
grief  through  the  depredations  of  his  own  or  his 
neighbor's  breachy  cattle. 

Fences  produce  nothing  but  unwelcome  bushes, 
briers  and  weeds.  So  far  as  they  may  be  necessary, 
they  are  a  deplorable  necessity.  When  constructed 
where  they  are  not  really  needed,  they  evince  costly 
folly.  I  think  I  could  point  out  farms  which  would 
not  sell  to-day  for  the  cost  of  rebuilding  their  present 
fences. 

We  cannot  make  open  drains  or  ditches  serve  for 
fences  in  this  country,  as  they  sometimes  do  in  milder 


WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

and  more  equable  climates,  because  our  severe  frosts 
would  heave  and  crumble  their  banks  if  nearly  per- 
pendicular, sloping  them  at  length  in  places  so  that 
animals  might  cross  them  at  leisure.  Nor  have  we, 
so  far  north  as  this  city,  had  much  success  with  hedges, 
for  a  like  reason.  There  is  scarcely  a  hedge-plant  at 
once  efficient  in  stopping  animals  and  so  hardy  as  to 
defy  the  severity,  or  rather  the  caprice,  of  our  Winters. 
I  scarcely  know  a  hedge  which  is  not  either  inefficient 
or  too  costly  for  the  average  fanner ;  and  then  a  hedge 
is  a  fixture ;  whereas  we  often  need  to  move  or  demol- 
ish our  fences. 

Wire  Fences  are  least  obnoxious  to  this  objection ; 
they  are  very  easily  removed ;  but  a  careless  teams- 
ter, a  stupid  animal,  or  a  clumsy  friend,  easily  makes 
a  breach  in  one,  which  is  not  so  easily  repaired.  Of 
the  few  Wire  Fences  within  my  knowledge,  hardly 
one  has  remained  entire  and  efficient  after  standing 
two  or  three  years. 

Stone  Walls,  well  built,  on  raised  foundations  of 
dry  earth,  are  enduring  and  quite  effective,  but  very 
costly.  My  best  have  cost  me  at  least  $5  per  rod, 
though  the  raw  material  was  abundant  and  accessi- 
ble. I  doubt  that  any  good  wall  is  built,  with  labor  at 
present  prices,  for  less  than  $3  per  rod.  Perhaps  I 
should  account  this  costliness  a  merit,  since  it  must 
impel  farmers  to  study  how  to  make  few  fences  serve 
their  turn. 

Rail  Fences  will  be  constructed  only  where  timber 
is  very  abundant,  of  little  value,  and  easily  split, 


FENCES   AND   FENCING.  223 

Whenever  the  burning  ot  timber  to  be  rid  of  it  has 
ceased,  there  the  making  of  rail  fences  must  be  near 
its  end. 

Where  fences  must  still  be  maintained,  I  apprehend 
that  posts  and  boards  are  the  cheapest  material. 
Though  Pine  lumber  grows  dear,  Hemlock  still 
abounds ;  and  the  rapid  destruction  of  trees  for  their 
bark  to  be  used  in  tanning  must  give  us  cheap  hem- 
lock boards  throughout  many  ensuing  years.  Spruce, 
Tamarack,  and  other  evergreens  from  our  Northern 
swamps,  will  come  into  play  after  Hemlock  shall  have 
been  exhausted. 

As  for  posts,  Red  Cedar  is  a  general  favorite ;  and 
this  tree  seems  to  be  rapidly  multiplying  hereabout. 
I  judge  that  farmers  who  have  it  not,  might  wisely 
order  it  from  a  nursery  and  give  it  an  experimental 
trial.  It  is  hardy;  it  is  clean;  it  makes  but  little 
shade ;  and  it  seems  to  fear  no  insect  whatever.  It 
flourishes  on  rocky,  thin  soils ;  and  a  grove  of  it  is 
pleasant  to  the  sight — at  least,  to  mine. 

Locust  is  more  widely  known  and  esteemed  ;  but 
the  borer  has  proved  destructive  to  it  on  very  many 
farms,  though  not  on  mine.  I  like  it  well,  and  mean 
to  multiply  it  extensively  by  drilling  the  seed  in  rich 
garden  soil  and  transplanting  to  rocky  woodland 
when  two  years  old.  Sowing  the  seed  among  rocks 
and  bushes  I  have  tried  rather  extensively,  with  poor 
success.  If  it  germinates  at  all,  the  young  tree  is  so 
tiny  and  feeble  that  bushes,  weeds,  and  grass,  overtop 
and  smother  it. 


224  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

That  a  post  set  top-end  down  will  last  many  years 
longer  than  if  set  as  it  grew,  I  do  firmly  believe, 
though  I  cannot  attest  it  from  personal  observation. 
I  understand  the  reason  to  be  this :  Trees  absorb  or 
suck  up  moisture  from  the  earth;  and  the  particles 
which  compose  them  are  so  combined  and  adjusted 
as  to  facilitate  this  operation.  Plant  a  post  deeply 
and  firmly  in  the  ground,  but-end  downward,  and  it 
will  continue  to  absorb  moisture  from  the  earth  as  it 
did  when  alive ;  and  the  post,  thus  moistened  to-day 
and  dried  by  wind  and  sun  to-morrow,  is  thereby 
subjected  to  more  rapid  disintegration  and  decay  than 
when  reversed. 

My  general  conclusion  is,  that  the  good  farmer 
will  have  fewer  and  better  Fences  than  his  thriftless 
neighbor,  and  that  he  will  study  and  plan  to  make 
fewer  and  fewer  rods  of  fence  serve  his  needs,  taking 
care  that  all  he  retains  shall  be  perfect  and  conclusive. 
Breechy  cattle  are  a  sad  affliction  alike  to  their  owner 
and  his  neighbor;  and  shaky,  rotting,  tumble-down 
fences,  are  justly  responsible  for  their  perverse  edu- 
cation. Let  us  each  resolve  to  take  good  care  that 
his  own  cattle  shall  in  no  case  afflict  his  neighbors, 
and  we  shall  all  need  fewer  fences  henceforth  and 
evermore. 


XXXYIII. 

AGEICTTLTUEAL    EXHIBITIONS. 

I  must  have  attended  not  less  than  fifty  State  or 
County  Fairs  for  the  exhibition  (mainly)  of  Agricultu- 
ral Machines  and  Products.  From  all  these,  I  should 
have  learned  something,  and  presume  I  did ;  but  I 
cannot  now  say  what.  Hence,  I  conclude  that  these 
Fairs  are  not  what  they  might  and  should  be.  In 
other  words,  they  should  be  improved.  But  how  ? 

As  the  people  compose  much  the  largest  and  best 
part  of  these  shows,  the  reform  must  begin  with  them. 
Two-thirds  of  them  go  to  a  Fair  with  no  desire  to 
learn  therefrom — no  belief  that  they  can  there  be 
taught  anything.  Of  course,  not  seeking,  they  do 
not  find.  If  they  could  but  realize  that  a  Farmer's 
Fair  might  and  should  teach  farmers  somewhat  that 
would  serve  them  in  their  vocation,  a  great  point 
would  be  gained.  But  they  go  in  quest  of  entertain- 
ment, and  find  this  mainly  in  horse-racing. 
-  Of  all  human  opportunities  for  instruction  in  humili- 
ty and  self-depreciation,  the  average  public  speaker's  is 
the  best.  He  hurries  to  a  place  where  he  has  been 
told  that  his  presence  and  utterance  are  earnestly  and 
10*  ("5) 


226  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

generally  desired — perhaps  to  find  that  his  invitation 
came  from  an  insignificant  and  odious  handful,  who 
had  some  private  ax  to  grind  so  repugnant  to  the 
great  majority  that  they  refuse  to  countenance  the 
procedure,  no  matter  how  great  the  temptation. 
Even  where  there  is  no  such  feud,  many,  having 
satiated  their  curiosity  by  a  long  stare  at  him,  walk 
whistling  off,  without  waiting  or  wishing  to  hear  him. 
But  the  speaker  at  a  Fair  must  compete  with  a  thou- 
sand counter-attractions,  the  least  of  them  far  more 
popular  and  winning  than  he  can  hope  to  be.  He  is 
heard,  so  far  as  he  is  heard  at  all,  in  presence  of  and 
competition  with  all  the  bellowing  bulls,  braying 
jacks,  and  squealing  stallions,  in  the  county ;  if  he 
holds,  nevertheless,  a  quarter  of  the  crowd,  he  does 
well :  but  let  two  jockeys  start  a  buggy-race  around 
the  convenient  track,  and  the  last  auditor  shuts  his 
ears  and  runs  off  to  enjoy  the  spectacle.  Decidedly, 
I  insist  that  a  Fair-ground  is  poorly  adapted  to  the 
diffusion  of  Agricultural  knowledge — that  the  people 
present  acquire  very  little  information  there,  even 
when  they  get  all  they  want. 

What  is  needed  to  render  our  annual  Fairs  useful 
and  instructive  far  beyond  precedent,  I  sum  up  as 
follows : 

I.  Each  farmer  in  the  county  or  township  should 
hold  himself  bound  to  make  some  contribution  there- 
to. If  only  a  good  hill  of  Corn,  a  peck  of  Potatoes, 
a  bunch  of  Grapes,  a  Squash,  a  Melon,  let  him  send 
that.  If  he  can  send  all  of  these,  so  much  the  better. 


AGRICULTURAL    EXHIBITIONS.  227 

There  is  very  rarely  a  thrifty  farmer  who  could  not 
add  to  the  attractions  and  merits  of  a  Fair  if  he 
would  try.  If  he  could  send  a  coop  of  superior  Fowls, 
a  likely  Calf,  or  a  first-rate  Cow,  better  yet;  but 
nine-tenths  of  our  farmers  regard  a  Fair  as  some- 
thing wherewith  they  have  nothing  to  do,  except  as 
spectators.  When  it  is  half  over,  they  lounge  into  it 
with  hands  in  their  pockets,  stare  about  for  an  hour, 
and  go  home  protesting  that  they  could  beat  nearly 
everything  they  saw  there.  Then  why  did  they  not 
try?  How  can  we  have  good  Fairs,  if  those  who 
might  make  the  best  display  of  products  save  them- 
selves the  trouble  by  not  making  any  ?  The  average 
meagerness  of  our  Fairs,  so  generally  and  justly  com- 
plained of,  is  not  the  fault  of  those  who  sent  what 
they  had,  but  of  those  who,  having  better,  were  too 
lazy  to  send  anything.  Until  this  is  radically  chang- 
ed, and  the  blame  fastened  on  those  who  might  have 
contributed,  but  did  not,  our  Fairs  cannot  help  being 
generally  meager  and  poor. 

II.  It  seems  to  me  that  there  is  great  need  of  an 
interesting  and  faithful  running  commentary  on  the 
various  articles  exhibited.  A  competent  person 
should  be  employed  to  give  an  hour's  off-hand  talk 
on  the  cattle  and  horses  on  hand,  explaining  the  di- 
verse merits  and  faults  of  the  several  breeds  there 
exhibited,  and  of  the  re'presentatives  of  those  breeds 
then  present.  If  any  are  peculiarly  adapted  to  the 
locality,  let  that  fact  be  duly  set  forth,  with  the 
simple  object  of  enabling  the  farmers  to  breed  more 


228  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAKMING. 

intelligently,  and  more  profitably.  Then  let  the  im- 
plements and  machinery  on  exhibition  be  likewise 
explained  and  discussed,  and  let  their  superiority  in 
whatever  respect  to  those  they  have  superseded  or 
are  designed  to  supersede  be  clearly  pointed  out.  So, 
if  there  be  any  new  Grain,  Yegetable,  or  Fruit,  on 
the  tables,  let  it  be  made  the  subject  of  capable  and 
thoroughly  impartial  discussion,  before  such  only  as 
choose  to  listen,  and  without  putting  the  mere  sight- 
seers to  grave  inconvenience.  A  lecture-room  should 
always  be  attached  to  a  Fair-ground,  yet  so  secluded 
as  to  shut  out  the  noise  inseparable  from  a  crowded 
exhibition.  Here,  meetings  should  be  held  each  even- 
ing, for  general  discussion  ;  every  one  being  encour- 
aged to  state  concisely  the  impressions  made  on  him, 
and  the  improvements  suggested  to  him,  by  what  he 
had  seen.  Do  let  us  try  to  reflect  and  consider  more 
at  these  gatherings,  even  though  at  the  cost  of  seeing 


III.  The  well  supported  Agricultural  Society  of  a 
rich  and  populous  county  must  be  able,  or  should 
be  able,  to  give  two  or  three  liberal  premiums  for 
general  proficiency  in  fanning.  If  $100  could  be 
proffered  to  the  owner  or  manager  of  the  best  tilled 
farm  in  the  county,  $50  to  the  owner  of  the  best  or- 
chard, and  $50  to  the  boy  under  18  years  of  age  who 
grew  the  best  acre  of  Corn  or  Roots  that  year,  I  am 
confident  that  an  impulse  would  thereby  be  given  to 
agricultural  progress.  Our  premiums  are  too  numer- 
ous and  too  petty,  because  so  few  are  willing  to  con- 


AGRICULTURAL   EXHIBITIONS.  229 

tribute  with  no  expectation  of  personal  benefit  or 
distinction.  If  we  had  but  the  right  spirit  aroused, 
we  might  dispense  with  most  of  our  petty  premiums, 
or  replace  them  by  medals  of  no  great  cost,  and  de- 
vote the  money  thus  saved  to  higher  and  nobler  ends. 
TV.  Much  of  the  speaking  at  Fairs  seems  to  me  in- 
sulting to  the  intelligence  of  the  Farmers  present, 
who  are  grossly  nattered  and  eulogized,  when  they 
often  need  to  be  admonished  and  incited  to  mend 
their  ways.  What  use  or  sense  can  there  be  in  a 
lawyer,  doctor,  broker,  or  editor,  talking  to  a  crowd 
of  farmers  as  if  they  were  the  most  favored  of  mor- 
tals and  their  life  the  noblest  and  happiest  known 
to  mankind  ?  "Whatever  it  might  be,  and  may  yet 
become,  we  all  know  that  the  average  farmer's  life  is 
not  what  it  is  thus  represented :  for,  if  it  were,  thous- 
ands would  be  rushing  into  it  where  barely  hundreds 
left  it :  whereas  we  all  see  that  the  fact  is  quite  other- 
wise. No  good  can  result  from  such  insincere  and 
extravagant  praises  of  a  calling  which  so  few  freely 
choose,  and  so  many  gladly  shun.  Grant  that  the 
farmer's  ought  to  be  the  most  enviable  and  envied 
vocation,  we  know  that  in  fact  it  is  not ;  and,  agree- 
ing that  it  should  be,  the  business  in  hand  is  to  make 
it  so.  There  must  be  obstacles  to  surmount,  mistakes 
to  set  right,  impediments  to  overcome,  before  farming 
can  be  in  all  respects  the  idolized  pursuit  which  poets 
are  so  ready  to  proclaim  it  and  orators  so  delight  to 
represent  it.  Let  us  struggle  to  make  it  all  that 
fancy  has  ever  painted  it ;  but,  so  long  as  it  is  not, 


230  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

let  us  respect  undeniable  facts,  and  characterize  it 
exactly  as  it  is. 

Y.  If  our  counties  were  thoroughly  canvassed  by 
township  committees,  and  each  tiller  of  the  soil  asked 
to  pledge  himself  in  writing  to  exhibit  something  at 
the  next  County  Fair,  we  should  soon  witness  a  de- 
cided improvement.  Many  would  be  incited  to  at- 
tend who  now  stay  away ;  while  the  very  general 
complaint  that  there  is  nothing  worth  coming  to  see 
would  be  heard  no  more.  As  yet,  a  majority  of 
farmers  regard  the  Fair  much  as  they  do  a  circus  or 
traveling  menagerie,  taking  no  interest  in  it  except 
as  it  may  afford  them  entertainment  for  the  passing 
hour.  We  must  change  this  essentially ;  and  the  first 
step  is  to  induce,  by  concerted  solicitation,  at  least 
half  the  farmers  in  the  county  to  pledge  themselves 
each  to  exhibit  something  at  the  next  annual  Fair, 
or  pay  $5  toward  increasing  its  premiums. 

VI.  In  short,  we  must  all  realize  that  the  County 
or  Township  Fair  is  our  Fair — not  got  up  by  others 
to  invite  our  patronage  or  criticism,  but  something 
whereto  it  is  incumbent  on  us  to  contribute,  and 
which  must  be  better  or  worse  as  we  choose  to  make 
it.  Realizing  this,  let  us  stop  carping  and  give  a 
shoulder  to  the  wheel. 


XXXIX. 

SCIENCE  IN  AGRICULTURE.  . 

I  AM  not  a  scientific  farmer ;  it  is  not  probable  that 
I  ever  shall  be.  I  have  no  such  knowledge  of  Chem- 
istry and  Geology  as  any  man  needs  to  make  him  a 
thoroughly  good  farmer.  I  am  quite  aware  that  men 
have  raised  good  crops — a  good  many  of  them — who 
knew  nothing  of  science,  and  did  not  consider  any 
acquaintance  with  it  conducive  to  efficiency  or  suc- 
cess in  their  vocation.  I  have  no  doubt  that  men 
will  continue  to  grow  such  crops,  and  to  make  money 
by  agriculture,  who  hardly  know  what  is  meant  by 
Chemistry  or  Geology ;  and  yet  I  feel  sure  that,  as 
the  years  roll  by,  Science  will  more  and  more  be  re- 
cognized and  accepted  as  the  true,  substantial  base 
of  efficient  and  profitable  cultivation.  .  Let  me  here 
give  briefly  the  grounds  of  this  conviction  : 

Every  plant  is  composed  of  elements  whereof  a 
very  small  portion  is  drawn  from  the  soil,  while  the 
ampler  residue,  so  long  as  the  plant  continues  green 
and  growing,  is  mainly  water,  though  a  variable  and 
often  considerable  proportion  is  imbibed  or  absorbed 
from  the  atmosphere,  which  is  understood  to  yield 

(*3») 


232  WHAT  I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

freely  nearly  all  the  elements,  required  of  it,  provided 
the  plants  are  otherwise  in  healthful  and  thrifty  con- 
dition. Water  is  supplied  from  the  sky,  or  from 
springs  and  streams ;  and  little  more  than  the  most 
ordinary  capacity  for  observation  is  required  to  deter- 
mine when  it  is  present  in  sufficient  quantity,  when 
in  baleful  excess.  But  who,  unaided  by  Science, 
can  decide  whether  the  soil  does  or  does  not  contain 
the  elements  requisite  for  the  luxuriant  growth  and 
perfect  development  of  Wheat,  or  Fruit,  or  Grass, 
or  Beets,  or  Apples  ?  Who  knows,  save  as  he  blindly 
infers  from  results,  what  mineral  ingredients  of 
this  or  that  crop  are  deficient  in  a  given  field,  and 
what  are  present  in  excess  ?  And  how  shah1  any  one 
be  enlightened  and  assured  on  the  point,  unless  by 
the  aid  of  Science  ? 

I  have  bought  and  applied  to  my  farm  some  two 
thousand  bushels  of  Lime,  and  ten  or  a  dozen  tuns  of 
Plaster ;  and  I  infer,  from  what  seemed  to  be  results, 
that  each  of  these  minerals  has  been  applied  with 
profit ;  but  I  do  not  know  it.  The  increased  product 
which  I  have  attributed  to  one  or  both  of  these  ele- 
ments may  have  had  a  very  different  origin  and  im- 
pulse. I  only  grope  my  way  in  darkness  when  I 
should  clearly  and  surely  see. 

An  agricultural  essayist  in  Maine  has  recently  put 
forth  a  canon  which,  if  well  grounded,  is  of  great 
value  to  farmers.  He  asserts  that  the  growth  of  acid 
plants  like  Sorrel,  Dock,  etc.,  in  a  field,  results  from 
sourness  in  the  soil,  and  that,  where  this  exists,  Lime 


SCIENCE   IN   AGRICULTURE.  283 

— that  is,  the  ordinary  Carbonate  of  Lime — is  urgently 
required ;  whereas  the  application  of  Plaster  or  Gyp- 
sum (Sulphate  of  Lime)  to  that  field  must  be  useless 
and  wasteful.  If  such  be  the  truth,  a  knowledge  of 
it  would  be  worth  millions  of  dollars  to  our  farmers. 
But  I  lack  the  scientific  attainment  needed  to  qualify 
me  for  passing  judgment  thereon. 

There  is  great  diversity  of  opinion  among  farmers 
with  regard  to  the  value  of  Swamp  Muck.  One  has 
applied  it  to  his  land  to  good  purpose ;  so  he  holds 
Muck,  if  convenient,  the  cheapest  and  best  fertilizer 
a  farmer  can  add  to  his  ordinary  barn-yard  manure  ; 
another  has  applied  cords  upon  cords  of  Muck,  and 
says  he  has  derived  therefrom  no  benefit  whatever. 
Now,  this  contrariety  of  conclusion  may  result  from 
imperfect  judgment  on  one  side  or  the  other,  or  from 
the  condition  precedent  of  the  diverse  soils :  one  of 
them  requiring  what  Muck  could  supply,  while  the 
other  required  something  very  different  from  that ; 
or  it  may  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  the  Muck 
applied  in  one  case  was  of  superior  quality,  and  in 
the  other  good  for  nothing.  Where  Muck  is  com- 
posed almost  wholly  of  the  leaves  of  forest-trees 
which,  through  thousands  of  years,  have  been  blown 
into  a  bog,  or  shallow  pond,  and  there  been  gradually 
transformed  into  a  fine,  black  dust  or  earth,  I  do  not 
see  how  it  can  possibly  be  applied  to  an  upland,  es- 
pecially a  sandy  or  gravelly  soil,  without  conducing 
to  the  subsequent  production  of  bounteous  crops. 
True,  it  may  be  sour  when  first  drawn  from  the  stag- 


234  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FAEMING. 

nant  pool  or  bog  in  which  it  has  lain  so  long,  and 
may  need  to  be  mixed  with  Lime,  or  Salt,  or  Ashes, 
and  subjected  to  the  action  of  sun  and  frost,  to  ripen 
and  sweeten  it.  But  it  seems  to  me  impossible  that 
such  Muck  should  be  applied  to  almost  any  reason- 
ably dry  land,  without  improving  its  consistency  and 
increasing  its  fertility.  But  all  Muck  is  not  the  pro- 
duct of  decayed  forest-leaves ;  and  that  which  was 
formed  of  coarse,  rank  weeds  and  brakes,  of  rotten 
wood  and  flags,  or  skunk  cabbage,  may  be  of  very  in- 
ferior quality,  so  as  hardly  to  repay  the  cost  of  dig- 
ging and  applying  it.  Science  will  yet  enable  us  to 
fix,  at  least  approximately,  the  value  of  each  deposit 
of  Muck,  and  so  give  a  preference  to  the  best. 

The  Analysis  of  Soils,  whereof  much  was  heard 
and  whence  much  was  hoped  a  few  years  since,  seems 
to  have  fallen  into  utter  discredit,  so  that  every 
would-be  popular  writer  gives  it  a  passing  fling  or 
kick.  That  any  analysis  yet  made  was  and  is  worth- 
less, I  can  readily  concede,  without  shaking  in  the  least 
my  conviction  that  soils  will  yet  be  analyzed,  under 
the  guidance  of  a  truer,  profounder  Science,  to  the 
signal  enlightenment  and  profit  of  their  cultivators. 
Here  is  a  retired  merchant,  banker,  doctor,  or  lawyer, 
who  has  bought  a  spacious  and  naturally  fertile  but 
worn-out,  run-down  farm,  on  which  he  proposes  to 
spend  the  remainder  of  his  days.  Of  course,  he  must 
improve  and  enrich  it ;  but  with  what  ?  and  how  ? 
All  the  manure  he  finds,  or,  for  the  present,  can  make 
on  it,  will  hardly  put  the  first  acre  in  high  condition, 


SCIENCE   IN   AGRICULTURE.  235 

while  be  grows  old  and  is  unwilling  to  wait  forever. 
He  is  able  and  ready  to  buy  fertilizers,  and  does  buy 
right  and  left,  without  knowing  whether  his  land 
needs  Lime,  or  Phosphate,  or  Potash,  or  something 
very  different  from  either.  Say  he  purchases  $2,000 
worth  of  one  or  more  of  these  fertilizers  :  it  is  highly 
probable  that  $1,500  might  have  served  him  better  if 
invested  in  due  proportion  in  just  what  his  land  most 
urgently  needs ;  and  I  unflinchingly  believe  that  we 
shall  yet  have  an  analysis  of  soils  that  will  tell  him 
just  what  fertilizers  he  ought  to  apply,  and  what 
quantity  of  each  of  them. 

Science  has  already  taught  us  that  every  load  of 
Hay  or  Grain  drawn  from  a  field  abstracts  therefrom 
a  considerable  quantity  of  certain  minerals  —  say 
Potash,  Lime,  Soda,  Magnesia,  Chlorine,  Silica, 
Phosphorus — and  that  the  soil  is  thereby  impover- 
ished until  they  be  replaced,  in  some  form  or  other. 
As  no  deposit  in  a  bank  was  ever  so  large  that  con- 
tinual drafts  would  not  ultimately  exhaust  it,  so  no 
soil  was  ever  so  rich  that  taking  crop  after  crop  from 
it  annually,  yet  giving  nothing  back,  would  not  ren- 
der it  sterile  or  worthless.  Sun  and  rain  and  wind 
will  do  their  part  in  the  work  of  renovation  ;  but  all 
of  them  together  cannot  restore  to  the  soil  the  mineral 
elements  whereof  each  crop  takes  a  portion,  and  which, 
being  once  completely  exhausted,  can  only  be  replaced 
at  a  heavy  cost.  Science  teaches  us  to  foresee  and 
prevent  such  exhaustion — in  part,  by  a  rotation  of 
crops,  and  in  part  by  a  constant  replacement  of  the 


236  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

minerals  annually  borne  away :  the  subtraction  being 
greater  in  proportion  as  the  crop  is  more  exacting  and 
luxuriant. 

What  I  know  of  Science  as  applicable  to  Farming 
is  little  indeed  ;  but  I  know  that  there  is  such 
Science,  and  that  each  succeeding  year  enlarges,  im- 
proves^  and  perfects  it.  I  know  that  I  should  thus 
far  have  farmed -to  far  better  purpose,  if  I  had  been 
master  even  of  so  much  Science  as  already  exists. 

Understand  that  I  am  not  a  teacher  of  this  Science 
— I  stand  very  low  in  the  class  of  learners.  I  began 
to  learn  too  late  in  life,  and  have  been  too  incessantly 
harassed  by  a  multiplicity  of  cares,  to  make  any 
satisfactory  progress.  Any  tolerably  educated  boy  of 
fifteen  may  know  far  more  of  Agricultural  Science  by 
the  time  he  has  passed  his  eighteenth  birth-day  than 
I  do.  What  I  know  in  this  respect  can  help  him 
very  little  ;  my  faith  that  there  is  much  to  be  known, 
and  that  he  may  master  it  if  he  will,  is  all  that  is  of 
much  importance.  If  I  can  convince  a  considerable 
number  of  our  youth  that  they  may  surely  acquire  a 
competence  by  the  time  they  shall  have  passed  their 
fortieth  year,  without  exce:sive  labor  or  penurious 
frugality,  by  means  of  that  knowledge  of  principles 
and  laws  subservient  to  Agriculture  which  their 
fathers  could  not,  but  which  they  easily  may  attain, 
I  shall  have  rendered  a  substantial  service  alike  to 
them  and  to  our  country. 


XL. 


FAKM   IMPLEMENTS. 

A  GOOD  workman,  it  is  said,  does  not  quarrel  with 
his  tools — which,  if  true,  I  judge  is  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  generally  manages  to  have  good  ones.  To 
work  hard  throughout  a  long  day  under  a  burning 
sun,  is  sufficiently  trying,  without  rendering  the  labor 
doubly  repugnant  by  the  use  of  ill-contrived,  imper- 
fect, inefficient  implements. 

The  half-century  which  nearly  bounds  my  recollec- 
tion has  witnessed  great  improvements  in  this  respect. 
The  Plow,  mainly  of  wood,  wherewith  my  father 
broke  up  his  stony,  hide-bound  acres  of  New-Hamp- 
bhire  pebbles  and  gravel,  in  my  early  boyhood,  would 
now  be  spurned  if  offered  as  a  gift  to  the  poorest  and 
most  thriftless  fanner  among  us  ;  and  the  Hoes  which 
were  allotted  to  us  boys  in  those  days,  after  the  newer 
and  better  had  been  assigned  to  the  men,  would  be 
rejected  with  disdain  by  the  stupidest  negro  in  Vir- 
ginia. Though  there  is  still  room  for  improvement, 
we  use  far  better  implements  than  our  grandfathers 
did,  with  a  corresponding  increase  in  the  efficiency 
of  our  labor ;  but  the  cultivators  of  Spain,  Portugal, 

(»37) 


238  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

and  the  greater  part  of  Europe,  still  linger  in  the 
dark  ages  in  this  respect.  Their  plows  are  little  bet- 
ter than  the  forked  sticks  which  served  their  barbarian 
ancestors,  and  their  implements  generally  are  beneath 
contempt.  With  such  implements,  deep  and  thorough 
culture  is  simply  impossible,  unless  by  the  use  of  the 
spade ;  and  he  must  be  a  hard  worker  who  produces  a 
peck  of  Wheat  or  half  a  bushel  of  Indian  Corn  per  day 
by  the  exclusive  use  of  this  tool.  The  soil  of  France 
is  so  cut  up  and  subdivided  into  little  strips  of  two  or 
three  roods  up  to  as  many  acres  each — each  strip 
forming  the  entire  patrimony  of  a  family — that  agri- 
cultural advancement  or  efficiency  is,  with  the  great 
mass  of  French  cultivators,  out  of  the  question. 
Hence,  I  judge  that,  outside  of  Great  Britain  and 
Australia,  there  is  no  country  wherein  an  average 
year's  work  produces  half  so  much  grain  as  in  our 
own,  in  spite  of  our  slovenly  tillage,  our  neglect  and 
waste  of  fertilizers,  and  the  frequent  failures  of  our 
harvests.  Belgium,  Holland,  and  northern  France, 
can  teach  us  neatness  and  thoroughness  of  cultivation  ; 
the  British  isles  may  fairly  boast  of  larger  and  surer 
crops  of  Wheat,  Oats,  Potatoes,  and  Grass,  than  we 
are  accustomed  to  secure  ;  but,  in  the  selection  of  im- 
plements, and  in  the  average  efficiency  of  labor,  our 
best  farmers  are  ahead  of  them  all. 

Bear  with  me,  then,  while  I  interpose  a  timid  plea 
for  our  inventors  and  patentees  of  implements,  whose 
solicitations  that  a  trial,  or  at  least  an  inspection,  be 
accorded  to  their  several  contrivances,  are  too  often 


FARM    IMPLEMENTS.  239 

repelled  with  churlish  rudeness.  I  realize  that  our 
thriving  farmers  are  generally  absorbed  in  their  own 
plans  and  efforts,  and  that  the  agent  or  salesman  who 
insists  on  an  examination  of  his  new  harrow,  or  pitch- 
fork, or  potato-digger,  is  often  extravagant  in  his  as- 
sumptions, and  sometimes  a  bore.  Still,  when  I  re- 
collect how  tedious  and  how  back-breaking  were  the 
methods  of  mowing  Grass  and  reaping  Grain  with  the 
Scythe  and  Sickle,  which  held  unchallenged  sway  in 
my  early  boyhood,  I  entreat  the  farmer  who  is  peti- 
tioned to  accord  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  to  the  setting 
forth,  by  some  errant  stranger,  of  the  merits  of  his 
new  horse-hoe  or  tedder,  to  give  the  time,  if  he  can ; 
and  that  without  sour  looks  or  a  mien  of  stolid  in- 
credulity. The  Biblical  monition  that,  in  evincing  a 
generous  hospitality,  we  may  sometimes  entertain 
angels  unawares,  seems  to  me  in  point.  A  new  im- 
plement may  be  defective  and  worthless,  and  yet  con- 
tain the  germ  or  suggest  the  form  of  a  thoroughly 
good  one.  Give  the  inventor  or  his  representative  a 
courteous  hearing  if  you  can,  even  though  this 
should  constrain  you  to  make  up  the  time  so 
lost  after  the  day's  work  would  otherwise  have 
ended. 

I  suspect  that  the  average  farmer  of  our  complete- 
ly rural  districts  would  be  surprised,  if  not  instructed, 
by  a  day's  careful  scrutiny  of  the  contents  of  one  of 
our  great  implement  warehouses.  So  many  and  such 
various  and  ingenious  devices  for  pulverizing  the 
earth  applying  fertilizers  to  the  soil,  planting  or  sow- 


240  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

ing  rapidly,  eradicating  weeds,  economizing  labor  in 
harvesting,  etc.,  will  probably  transcend  not  merely 
his  experience,  but  his  imagination ;  and  every  one 
of  these  myriad  implements  is  useful  in  its  place, 
though  no  single  farmer  can  afford  to  buy  all  or  half 
of  them.  It  will  yet,  I  think,  be  found  necessary  by 
the  farmers  of  a  school-district,  if  not  of  a  township, 
to  meet  and  agree  among  themselves  that  one  will 
buy  this  implement,  another  that,  and  so  on,  until 
twenty  or  thirty  such  devices  as  a  Stump  or  Rock- 
Puller,  a  Clod-Crusher,  Thrashing-Machine,  Fanning- 
Mill,  etc.,  shall  be  owned  in  the  neighborhood — each 
by  a  separate  farmer,  willing  to  live  and  let  live — 
with  an  understanding  that  each  shall  be  used  in 
turn  by  him  who  needs  it ;  and  so  every  one  shall  be 
nearly  as  well  accommodated  as  though  he  owned  them 
all. 

For  the  number  and  variety  of  useful  implements 
increase  so  rapidly,  while  their  usefulness  is  so  pal- 
pable, that,  though  it  is  difficult  to  farm  efficiently 
without  many  if  not  most  of  them,  it  is  impossible 
that  the  young  farmer  of  moderate  means  should  buy 
and  keep  them  all.  True,  he  might  hire  when  he 
needed,  if  what  he  wanted  were  always  at  hand  ;  but 
this  can  only  be  assured  by  some  such  arrangement 
as  I  have  suggested,  wherein  each  undertakes  to  pro- 
vide and  keep  that  which  he  will  most  need  ;  agree- 
ing to  lend  it  whenever  it  can  be  spared  to  any  other 
member  of  the  combination,  who  undertakes  to  min- 
ister in  like  manner  to  his  need  in  return. 


STEAM   IN   AGRICULTURE.  241 

I  think  few  will  doubt  that  the  inventions  in  aid 
of  Agriculture  during  the  last  forty  years  will  be  far 
surpassed  by  those  of  the  forty  years  just  before  us. 
The  magnificent  fortunes  which,  it  is  currently  un- 
derstood, have  rewarded  the  inventors  of  the  more 
popular  Mowers,  Reapers,  etc.,  of  our  day,  are  sure 
to  stimulate  alike  the  ingenuity  and  the  avarice  of 
clever  men  throughout  the  coming  years,  and  to  call 
into  existence  ten  thousand  patents,  whereof  a  hun- 
dred will  be  valuable,  and  ten  or  twelve  eminently 
useful.  Plowing  land  free  from  stumps  and  stones 
cannot  long  be  the  tedious,  patience-trying  process  we 
have  known  it.  The  machinery  which  will  at  once 
pulverize  the  soil  to  a  depth  of  two  feet,  fertilize  and 
seed  it,  not  requiring  it  to  be  trampled  by  the  hoofs 
of  animals  employed  in  subsoiling  and  harrowing, 
will  soon  be  in  general  use,  especially  on  the  spacious, 
deep,  inviting  prairies  of  the  Great  West. — But  I 
must  defer  what  I  have  to  say  of  Steam  and  its  uses 
in  Agriculture  to  another  chapter. 


XLI. 

STEAM   IN   AGRICULTURE. 

As  yet,  the  great  body  of.  our  farmers  have  been 
slow  in  availing  themselves  of  the  natural  forces  in 
operation  around  them.     Yainly  for  them  does  the 
ii 


24:2  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

wind  blow  across  their  fields  and  over  their  hill-tops. 
It  neither  thrashes  nor  grinds  their  grain  ;  it  has 
ceased  even  to  separate  it  from  the  chaff.  The  brook 
brawls  and  foams  idly  adown  the  precipice  or  hill- 
side :  the  farmer  grinds  his  grain,  churns  his  cream, 
and  turns  his  grindstone,  just  as  though  falling  water 
did  not  embody  power.  He  draws  his  Logs  to  one 
mill,  and  his  Wheat,  Corn,  or  Rye  to  another,  and 
returns  in  due  season  with  his  boards  or  his  meal ; 
but  the  lesson  which  the  mill  so  plainly  teaches  re- 
mains by  him  unread.  Where  running  or  leaping 
water  is  not,  there  brisk  breezes  and  fiercer  gales  are 
apt  to  be.  But  the  average  farmer  ignores  the 
mechanical  use  of  stream  and  breeze  alike,  taxing 
his  own  muscle  to  achieve  that  which  the  blind  forces 
of  Nature  stand  ready  to  do  at  his  command.  It  may 
not,  and  I  think  it  will  not,  be  always  thus. 

Steam,  as  a  cheap  source  of  practically  limitless 
power,  is  hardly  a  century  old ;  yet  it  has  already  re- 
volutionized the  mechanical  and  manufacturing  in- 
dustry of  Christendom.  It  weaves  the  far  greater 
part  of  all  the  Textile  Fabrics  that  clothe  and  shelter 
and  beautify  the  human  family.  It  fashions  every 
bar  and  every  rail  of  Iron  or  of  Steel ;  it  impels  the 
machinery  of  nearly  every  manufactory  of  wares  or 
of  implements ;  and  it  is  very  rapidly  supplanting 
wind  in  the  propulsion  of  vessels  on  the  high  seas, 
as  it  has  already  done  on  rivers  and  on  most  inland 
waters. 

Water  is,  however,  still  employed  as  a  power  in 


STEAM   IN   AGRICULTURE.  2-13 

certain  cases,  but  mainly  because  its  adaptation  to 
this  end  has  cost  many  thousands  of  dollars  which  its 
disuse  would  render  worthless. 

I  am  quite  within  bounds  in  estimating  that  nine- 
tenths  of  all  the  material  force  employed  by  man  in 
Manufactures,  Mechanics,  and  Navigation,  is  supplied 
by  Steam,  and  that  this  disproportion  will  be  increas- 
ed to  ninety-nine  hundredths  before  the  close  of  this 
century. 

For  Agriculture,  Steam  has  done  very  much,  in  the 
transportation  of  crops  and  of  fertilizers,  but  very 
little  in  the  preparation  or  cultivation  of  the  soil. 
Of  steam-wagons  for  roads  or  fields,  steam-plows  for 
pulverizing  and  deepening  the  soil,  and  steam-culti- 
vators for  keeping  weeds  down  and  rendering  tillage 
more  efficient,  we  have  had  many  heralded  in  san- 
guine bulletins  throughout  the  last  forty  years,  but 
I  am  not  aware  that  one  of  them  has  fulfilled  the  san- 
guine hopes  of  its  author.  Though  a  dozen  Steam- 
Plows  have  been  invented  in  this  country,  and  sev- 
eral imported  from  Europe,  I  doubt  that  a  single 
square  mile  of  our  country's  surface  has  been  plowed 
wholly  by  steam  down  to  this  hour.  If  it  has,  Louisi- 
ana— a  State  which  one  would  not  naturally  expect 
to  find  in  the  van  of  industrial  progress — has  enjoyed 
the  benefit  and  earned  the  credit  of  the  achievement. 

Of  what  Steam  has  yet  accomplished  in  direct  aid 
of  Agriculture,  I  have  little  to  say,  though  in  Great 
Britain  quite  a  number  of  steam-plows  are  actually 
at  work  in  the  fields,  and  (I  am  assured)  with  fair  sue- 


244  WHAT   I    KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

cess.  Until  something  breaks  or  gives  out,  one  of 
these  plows  does  its  appointed  work  better  and 
cheaper  than  such  work  is  or  can  be  done  by  animal 
power ;  but  all  the  steam-plows  whereof  I  have  any 
knowledge  seem  too  bulky,  too  complicated,  too 
costly,  ever  to  win  their  way  into  general  use.  I 
value  them  only  as  hints  and  incitements  toward 
something  better  suited  to  the  purpose. 

What  our  farmers  need  is  not  a  steam-plow  as  a 
specialty,  but  a  locomotive  that  can  travel  with  fa- 
cility, not  only  on  common  wagon-roads,  but  across 
even  freshly-plowed  fields,  without  embarrassment, 
and  prove  as  docile  to  its  manager's  touch  as  an  aver- 
age span  of  horses.  Such  a  locomotive  should  not 
cost  more  then  $500,  nor  weigh  more  than  a  tun 
when  laden  with  fuel  and  water  for  a  half-hour's 
steady  work.  It  should  be  so  contrived  that  it  may 
be  hitched  in  a  minute  to  a  plow,  a  harrow,  a  wagon, 
or  cart,  a  saw  or  grist-mill,  a  mower  or  reaper,  a 
thresher  or  stalk-cutter,  a  stump  or  rock-puller,  and 
made  useful  in  pumping  and  draining  operations, 
digging  a  cellar  or  laying  up  a  wall,  as  also  in  ditch- 
ing or  trenching.  We  may  have  to  wait  some  years 
yet  for  a  servant  so  dexterous  and  docile,  yet  I  feel 
confident  that  our  children  will  enjoy  and  appreciate 
his  handiwork. 

The  farmer  often  needs  far  more  power  at  one  sea- 
son than  at  another,  and  is  compelled  to  retain  and 
subsist  working  animals  at  high  cost  through  months 
in  which  he  has  no  use  for  them,  because  he  must 


STEAM    IN    AGRICULTURE.  245 

have  them  when  those  months  have  transpired.  If 
he  could  replace  those  animals  by  a  machine  which, 
when  its  season  of  usefulness  was  over,  could  be 
cleaned,  oiled,  and  put  away  under  a  tight  roof  until 
next  seeding-time,  the  saving  alike  of  cost  and  trouble 
would  be  very  considerable. 

When  our  American  reapers  first  challenged  atten- 
tion in  Great  Britain,  the  general  skepticism  as  to 
their  efficiency  was  counteracted  by  the  suggestion 
that,  even  though  reaping  by  machinery  should  prove 
more  expensive  than  reaping  by  hand,  the  ability  to 
cut  and  save  the  grain-crop  more  rapidly  than  hith- 
erto would  overbalance  that  enhancement  of  cost.  In 
the  British  Isles,  day  after  day  of  chilling  wind  and 
rain  is  often  encountered  in  harvest-time  :  the  stand- 
ing "Wheat  or  Oats  or  Barley  becoming  draggled,  or 
lodged,  or  beaten  out,  while  the  owner  impatiently 
awaits  the  recurrence  of  sunny  days.  When  these  at 
length  arrive,  he  is  anxious  to  harvest  many  acres  at 
once,  since  his  Grain  is  wasting  and  he  kno\vs  not 
how  soon  cloud  and  tempest  may  again  be  his  por- 
tion. But  all  his  neighbors  are  in  like  predicament 
with  himself,  and  all  equally  intent  on  hurrying  the 
harvest ;  so  that  little  extra  help  is  attainable.  If  now 
the  aid  of  a  machine  may  be  commanded,  which  will 
cut  15  or  20  acres  per  day,  he  cares  less  how  much 
that  work  will  cost  than  how  soon  it  can  be  effected. 
Hence,  even  though  cutting  by  horse-power  had 
proved  more  costly  than  cutting  by  hand,  it  would 
still  have  been  welcome. 


246  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

So  it  is  with  Plowing,  here  and  almost  everywhere. 
Our  fanners  have  this  year  been  unable  to  begin 
Plowing  for  "Winter  Grain  so  early  as  they  desired, 
by  reason  of  the  intense  heat  and  drouth,  whereby 
their  fields  were  baked  to  the  consistency  of  half- 
burned  brick.  Much  seed  will  in  consequence  have 
been  sown  too  late,  while  much  seeding  will  have 
been  precluded  altogether,  by  inability  to  prepare  the 
ground  in  due  season.  If  a  machine  had  been  at 
hand  whereby  15  or  20  acres  per  day  could  have  been 
plowed  and  harrowed,  thousands  would  have  invoked 
its  aid  to  enable  them  to  sow  their  Grain  in  tolerable 
season,  even  though  the  cost  had  been  essentially 
heavier  than  that  of  old-fashioned  plowing.  I  tra- 
versed Illinois  on  the  13th  and  14th  of  May,  1859, 
when  its  entire  soil  seemed  soaked  and  sodden  with 
incessant  rains,  which  had  not  yet  ceased  pouring. 
Inevitably,  there  had  been  little  or  no  plowing  yet 
for  the  vast  Corn-crop  of  that  State  ;  yet  barely  two 
weeks  would  intervene  before  the  close  of  the  proper 
season  for  Corn-planting.  Even  if  these  should  be 
wholly  favorable,  the  plowing  could  not  be  effected 
in  season,  and  much  ground  must  be  planted  too  late 
or  not  planted  at  all.  In  every  such  case,  a  machine 
that  would  plow  six  or  eight  furrows  as  fast  as  a  man 
ought  to  walk,  would  add  immensely  to  the  year's 
harvest,  and  be  hailed  as  a  general  blessing. 

I  recollect  that  a  German  observer  of  Western  cul- 
tivation— a  man  of  decided  perspicacity  and  wide 
observation — recommended  that  each  farmer  who  had 


STEAM   IN    AGRICULTURE.  247 

not  the  requisite  time  or  team  for  getting  in  his  Corn- 
crop  in  due  season  should  plow  single  furrows  through 
his  field  at  intervals  of  3  to  34-  feet,  plant  his  Corn 
on  the  earth  thus  turned,  and  proceed,  so  soon  as  his 
planting  was  finished,  to  plow  out  the  spaces  as  yet 
undisturbed  between  the  springing  rows  of  Corn.  I 
do  not  know  that  this  recommendation  was  ever 
widely  followed  ;  but  I  judge  that,  under  certain  cir- 
cumstances, it  might  be,  to  decided  advantage  and 
profit. 

I  have  not  attempted  to  indicate  all  the  benefits 
which  Steam  is  to  confer  directly  on  Agriculture, 
within  the  next  half-century.  That  Irrigation  must 
become  general,  I  confidently  believe ;  and  I  antici- 
pate a  very  extensive  sinking  of  wells,  at  favorable 
points,  in  order  that  water  shall  be  drawn  therefrom 
by  wind  or  steam  to  moisten  and  enrich  the  slopes 
and  plains  around  them.  Such  a  locomotive  as  I 
have  foreshadowed  might  be  taken  from  well  to  well, 
pumping  from  each  in  an  hour  or  two  sufficient 
water  to  irrigate  several  of  the  adjacent  acres  ;  thus 
starting  a  second  crop  of  Hay  on  fields  whence  the 
first  had  been  taken,  and  renewing  verdure  and 
growth  where  we  now  see  vegetation  suspended  for 
weeks,  if  not  months.  I  feel  sure  that  the  mass  of 
our  farmers  have  not  yet  realized  the  importance  and 
beneficence  of  Irrigation,  nor  the  facility  wherewith 
its  advantages  may  be  secured. 


XLII. 

CO-OPERATION   IN   FARMING. 

THE  word  of  hope  and  cheer  for  Labor  in  our  days 
is  COOPERATION — that  is,  the  combination  by  many 
of  their  means  and  efforts  to  achieve  results  bene- 
ficial to  them  all.  It  differs  radically  from  Com- 
munism, which  proposes  that  each  should  receive 
from  the  aggregate  product  of  human  labor  enough 
to  satisfy  his  wants,  or  at  least  his  needs,  whether  he 
shall  have  contributed  to  that  aggregate  much,  or 
little,  or  nothing  at  all.  Cooperation  insists  that  each 
shall  receive  from  the  joint  product  in  proportion 
to  his  contributions  thereto,  whether  in  capital,  skill, 
or  labor.  If  one  associate  has  ten  children  and  an- 
other none,  Communism  would  apportion  to  each  ac- 
cording to  the  size  of  his  family  alone ;  while  Coop- 
eration would  give  to  each  what  he  had  earned,  re- 
gardless of  the  number  dependent  upon  him.  Thus 
the  two  systems  are  radical  antagonists,  and  only 
the  grossly  ignorant  or  willfully  blind  will  confound 
them. 

A  young  farmer,  whose  total  estate  is  less  than 
$500,  not  counting  a  priceless  wife  and  child,  resolves 


CO-OPERATION   IN    FARMING.  249 

to  migrate  from  one  of  the  old  States  to  Kansas, 
Minnesota,  or  one  of  the  Territories :  he  has  heard 
that  he  will  there  find  public  land  whereon  he  may 
make  a  home  of  a  quarter-section,  paying  therefor 
$20  or  less  for  the  cost  of  survey  and  of  the  necessary 
papers.  So  he  may  :  but,  on  reaching  the  Land  of 
Promise,  whether  with  or  without  his  family,  he  finds 
a  very  large  belt  of  still  vacant  land  beyond  the  set- 
tlements already  transformed  into  private  property, 
and  either  not  for  sale  at  all  or  held  on  speculation, 
quite  out  of  his  reach.  The  public  land  which  he 
may  take  under  the  Homestead  law  lies  a  full  day's 
journey  beyond  the  border  settlements,  to  which  he 
must  look  for  Mills,  Stores,  Schools,  and  even  High- 
ways. If  he  persists  in  squatting,  with  intent  to  earu 
his  quarter-section  by  settlement  and  cultivation,  ho 
must  take  a  long  day's  journey  across  unbridged 
streams  and  sloughs,  over  unmade  roads,  to  find 
boards,  or  brick,  or  meal,  or  glass,  or  groceries ;  while 
he  must  postpone  the  education  of  his  children  to  an 
indefinite  future  day.  Gradually,  the  region  will  be 
settled,  and  the  conveniences  of  civilization  will  find 
their  way  to  his  door,  but  not  till  after  he  will  have 
suffered  through  several  years  for  want  of  them  ;  often 
compelled  to  make  a  journey  to  get  a  plow  or  yoke 
mended,  a  grist  of  grain  ground,  or  to  minister  to 
some  other  trivial  but  inexorable  want.  He  who 
thus  acquires  his  quarter-section  must  fairly  earn  it, 
and  may  be  thankful  if  his  children  do  not  grow  up 
rude,  coarse,  and  illiterate. 


250  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

But  suppose  one  thousand  just  such  young  farmers 
as  he  is,  with  no  more  means  and  no  greater  efficiency 
than  his,  were  to  set  forth  together,  resolved  to  find  a 
suitable  location  whereon  they  might  all  settle  on  ad- 
joining quarter-sections,  thus  appropriating  the  soil 
of  five  or  six  embryo  townships  :  who  can  fail  to  see 
that  three-fourths  of  the  obstacles  and  discourage- 
ments which  confront  the  solitary  pioneer  would  van- 
ish at  the  outset  ?  Roads,  Bridges,  Mills, — nay,  even 
Schools  and  Churches — would  be  theirs  almost  im- 
mediately ;  while  mechanics,  merchants,  doctors,  etc., 
would  fairly  overrun  their  settlement  and  solicit 
their  patronage  at  every  road-crossing.  Within  a 
year  after  the  location  of  their  several  claims,  they 
would  have  achieved  more  progress  and  more  comfort 
than  in  five  years  under  the  system  of  straggling  and 
isolated  settlement  which  has  hitherto  prevailed.  The 
change  I  here  indicate  appeals  to  the  common  sense 
and  daily  experience  of  our  whole  people.  It  is  not 
necessary,  however  desirable,  that  the  pioneers  should 
be  giants  in  wisdom,  in  integrity,  or  in  piety,  to  se- 
cure its  benefits.  A  knave  or  a  fool  may  be  deemed 
an  undesirable  neighbor;  but  a  dozen  such  in  the 
township  would  not  preclude,  and  could  hardly  di- 
minish, the  advantages  naturally  resulting  from  set- 
tlement by  Cooperation. 

Nor  are  these  confined  to  pioneers  transcending  the 
boundaries  of  civilization.  I  wish  I  could  induce  a 
thousand  of  our  colored  men  now  precariously  sub- 
sisting by  servile  labor  in  the  cities,  to  strike  out 


CO-OPEEATION   1$   FARMING.  251 

boldly  for  homes  of  their  own,  and  for  liberty  to  di- 
rect their  own  labor,  whether  they  should  settle  on 
the  frontier  in  the  manner  just  outlined,  or  should 
buy  a  tract  of  cheap  land  on  Long  Island,  in  New- 
Jersey,  Maryland,  or  some  State  further  South.  I 
cannot  doubt  that  the  majority  of  them  would  work 
their  way  up  to  independence ;  and  this  very  much 
sooner,  and  after  undergoing  far  less  privation,  than 
almost  every  pioneer  who  has  plunged  alone  into  the 
primitive  forest  or  struck  out  upon  the  broad  prairie 
and  there  made  himself  a  farm. 

The  insatiable  demand  for  fencing  is  one  of  the 
pioneer's  many  trials.  Though  he  has  cleared  off 
but  three  acres  of  forest  during  his  first  Fall  and 
"Winter,  he  must  surround  those  acres  with  a  stout 
fence,  or  all  he  grows  wrill  be  devoured  by  hungry 
cattle — his  own,  if  no  others.  "Whether  he  adds  two 
or  ten  acres  to  his  clearing  during  the  next  year,  they 
must  in  turn  be  surrounded  by  a  fence  ;  and  nothing 
short  of  a  very  stout  one  will  answer :  so  he  goes  on 
clearing  and  fencing,  usually  burning  up  a  part  of 
his  fence  whenever  he  burns  over  his  new  clearing  ; 
then  building  a  new  one  around  this,  which  will  have 
to  be  sacrificed  in  its  turn.  I  believe  that  many  pio- 
neers have  devoted  as  much  time  to  fencing  their 
fields  as  to  tilling  them  throughout  their  first  six  or 
eight  years. 

It  is  different  with  those  who  settle  on  broad 
prairies,  but  not  essentially  better.  Each  pioneer 
must  fence  his  patch  of  tillage  with  material  which 


252  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

costs  him  more,  and  is  procured  with  greater  diffi- 
culty, than  though  he  were  cutting  a  hole  in  the 
forest.  Often,  when  he  thinks  he  has  fenced  suffi- 
ciently, the  hungry,  breachy  cattle,  who  roarn  the 
open  prairies  around  him,  judge  his  handiwork  less 
favorably ;  and  he  wakes  some  August  morning, 
when  feed  is  poorest  outside  and  most  luxuriant 
within  his  inclosure,  to  find  that  twenty  or  thirty 
cattle  have  broken  through  his  defenses  and  half  de- 
stroyed his  growing  crop. 

If,  instead  of  this  wasteful  lack  of  system,  a  thou- 
sand or  even  a  hundred  farmers  would  combine  to 
fence  several  square  miles  into  one  grand  inclosure 
for  cultivation,  erecting  their  several  habitations 
within  or  without  its  limits,  as  to  each  should  be  con- 
venient— apportioning  it  for  cultivation,  or  owning 
it  in  severalty,  as  they  should  see  fit — an  immense 
economy  would  be  secured,  just  when,  because  of 
their  poverty,  saving  is  most  important.  Their  stock 
might  range  the  open  prairie  unwatched ;  and  they 
might  all  sleep  at  night  in  serene  confidence  that  their 
corn  and  cabbages  were  not  in  danger  of  ruthless  de- 
struction. Among  the  settlers  in  our  great  primitive 
forests,  the  system  of  Cooperative  Farming  would 
hare  to  be  modified  in  details,  while  it  would  be  in 
essence  the  same. 

And,  once  adopted  with  regard  to  fencing,  other 
adaptations  as  obvious  and  beneficent  would  from 
day  to  day  suggest  themselves.  Each  pioneer  would 
learn  how  to  advance  his  own  prosperity  by  com- 


CO-OPEEATION   IN    FAEMING.  253 

bining  his  efforts  with  those  of  his  neighbors.  He 
would  perceive  that  the  common  wants  of  a  hundred 
may  be  supplied  by  a  combined  effort  at  less  than 
half  the  cost  of  satisfying  them  when  each  is  pro- 
vided for  alone.  He  would  grow  year  by  year  into 
a  clearer  and  firmer  conviction  that  short-sighted 
selfishness  is  the  germ  of  half  the  evils  that  afflict  the 
human  race,  and  that  the  true  and  sure  way  to  a 
bounteous  satisfaction  of  the  wants  of  each  is  a  gen- 
erous and  thoughtful  consideration  for  the  needs  of 
all. 

And  here  let  me  pay  my  earnest  and  thankful 
tribute  to  Mr.  E.  V.  de  Boissiere,  a  philantliropic 
Frenchman,  who  has  purchased  3,300  acres  of 
mainly  rolling  prairie-land  in  Kansas,  near  Prince- 
ton, Franklin  County,  and  is  carefully,  cautiously, 
laying  thereon  the  foundations  of  a  great  cooperative 
farm,  where,,  in  addition  to  the  usual  crops,  it  is  ex- 
pected that  Silk  and  other  exotics  will  in  due  time  be 
extensively  grown  and  transformed  into  fabrics,  and 
that  various  manufactures  will  vie  with  Agricul- 
ture in  affording  attractive  and  profitable  employ- 
ment to  a  considerable  population.  I  have  not 
been  accustomed  to  look  with  favor  on  our  new 
States  and  unpeopled  Territories  as  an  arena  for 
such  experiments,  since  so  many  of  their  early 
settlers  are  intent  on  getting  rich  by  land-specula- 
tion— at  all  events,  through  the  exercise  of  some 
others'  muscles  than  their  own — while  the  oppor- 


254  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

tunities  for  and  incitements  to  migration  and  re- 
location are  so  multiform  and  powerful.  Doubt- 
less, M.  de  Boissiere  will  be  often  tried  by  stam- 
pedes of  his  volunteer  associates,  who,  after  the 
novelty  of  cooperative  effort  has  worn  off,  -will 
find  life  on  his  domain  too  tame  and  humdrum  for 
their  excitable  and  high-strung  natures.  I  trust, 
however,  that  he  will  persevere  through  every  dis- 
couragement, and  triumph  over  every  obstacle ;  that 
the  right  men  for  associates  will  gradually  gather 
about  him;  that  his  enterprise  and  devotion  will 
at  length  be  crowned  by  a  signal  and  inspiring  suc- 
cess ;  and  that  thousands  will  be  awakened  by  it  to  a 
larger  and  nobler  conception  of  the  mission  of  In- 
dustry, and  the  possibilities  of  achievement  which 
stud  the  path  of  simple,  honest,  faithful,  persistent 
Work. 


XLIII. 

FARMERS'  CLUBS. 

FARMERS,  like  other  men,  divide  naturally  into  two 
classes — those  who  do  too  much  work,  and  those  who 
do  too  little.  I  know  men  who  are  no  farmers  at  all, 
only  by  virtue  of  the  fact  that  each  of  them  inherited, 
or  somehow  acquired,  a  farm,  and  have  since  lived 
upon  and  out  of  it,  in  good  part  upon  that  which  it 
could  not  help  producing — they  not  doing  so  much  as 


FAEMERS'   CLUBS.  255 

one  hundred  fair  days'  work  each  per  annum.  One 
of  this  class  never  takes  a  periodical  devoted  to  farm- 
ing; evinces  no  interest  in  county  fairs  or  township 
clubs,  save  as  they  may  afford  him  an  excuse  for 
greater  idleness ;  and  insists  that  there  is  no  profit  in 
farming.  As  land  steadily  depreciates  in  quality 
under  his  management,  he  is  apt  to  sell  out  when- 
ever the  increase  of  population  or  progress  of  im- 
provement has  given  additional  value  to  his  farm, 
and  move  off  in  quest  of  that  undiscovered  country 
where  idleness  is  compatible  with  thrift,  profits  are 
realized  from  light  crops,  and  men  grow  rich  by  do- 
ing nothing. 

The  opposite  class  of  wanderers  from  the  golden 
mean  is  hardly  so  numerous  as  the  idlers,  yet  it  is 
quite  a  large  one.  Its  leading  embodiment,  to  my 
mind,  is  one  whom  I  knew  from  childhood,  who, 
born  poor  and  nowise  favored  by  fortune,  was  rated 
as  a  tireless  worker  from  early  boyhood,  and  who 
achieved  an  independence  before  he  was  forty  years 
old  in  a  rural  New-England  township,  simply  by 
rugged,  persistent  labor — in  youth  on  the  farms  of 
other  men ;  in  manhood,  on  one  of  his  own.  This 
man  was  older  at  forty  than  his  father,  then  seventy, 
and  died  at  fifty,  worn  out  with  excessive  and  unin- 
termitted  labor,  leaving  a  widow  who  greatly  prefer- 
red him  to  all  his  ample  wealth,  and  an  only  son  who, 
so  soon  as  he  can  get  hold  of  it,  will  squander  the 
property  much  faster,  and  even  more  unwisely,  than 
his  father  acquired  it. 


256  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

To  the  class  of  which  this  man  was  a  fair  repre- 
sentative, Farmers'  Clubs  must  prove  of  signal  value. 
Though  there  should  be  nothing  else  than  a  Farmers' 
Club  in  his  neighborhood,  it  can  hardly  fail  in  time 
to  make  such  a  one  realize  that  life  need  not  and 
should  not  be  all  drudgery  ;  that  there  are  other 
things  worth  living  for  beside  accumulating  wealth. 
Let  his  wife  and  his  neighbor  succeed  in  drawing 
such  a  one  into  two  or  three  successive  meetings,  and 
he  can  hardly  fail  to  perceive  that  thrift  is  a  product 
of  brain  as  well  as  of  muscle  ;  that  he  may  grow  rich 
by  learning  and  knowing  as  well  as  by  delving,  and 
that,  even  though  he  should  not,  there  are  many 
things  desirable  and  laudable  beside  the  accumulation 
of  wealth. 

A  true  Farmers'  Club  should  consist  of  all  the  fam- 
ilies residing  in  a  small  township,  so  far  as  they  can 
be  induced  to  attend  it,  even  though  only  half  their 
members  should  be  present  at  any  one  meeting.  It 
should  limit  speeches  to  ten  minutes,  excepting  only 
those  addresses  or  essays  which  eminently  qualified 
persons  are  requested  to  specially  prepare  and  read. 
It  should  have  a  president,  ready  and  able  to  repress 
all  ill-natured  personalities,  all  irrelevant  talk,  and 
especially  all  straying  into  the  forbidden  regions  of 
political  or  theological  disputation.  At  each  meeting, 
the  subject  should  be  chosen  for  the  next,  and  not 
less  than  four  members  pledged  to  make  some  obser- 
vations thereon,  with  liberty  to  read  them  if  unused 
to  speaking  in  public.  These  having  been  heard, 


FAKHERS'    CLUBS.  257 

the  topic  should  be  open  to  discussion  by  all  pres- 
ent :  the  humblest  and  youngest  being  specially  en- 
couraged to  state  any  facts  within  their  knowledge 
which  they  deem  pertinent  and  cogent.  Let  every 
person  attending  be  thus  incited  to  say  something  cal- 
culated to  shed  light  on  the  subject,  to  say  this  in 
the  fewest  words  possible,  and  with  the  utmost  care 
not  to  annoy  or  offend  others,  and  it  is  hardly  possi- 
ble that  one  evening  per  week  devoted  to  these 
meetings  should  not  be  spent  with  equal  pleasure 
and  profit. 

The  chief  end  to  be  achieved  through  such  meet- 
ings is  a  development  of  the  faculty  of  observation 
and  the  habit  of  reflection.  Too  many  of  us  pass 
through  life  essentially  blind  and  deaf  to  the  wonders 
and  glories  manifest  to  clearer  eyes  all  around  us. 
The  magnificent  phenomena  of  the  Seasons,  even 
the  awakening  of  Nature  from  death  to  life  in 
Spring-time,  make  little  impression  on  their  senses, 
still  less  on  their  understandings.  There  are  men 
who  have  passed  forty  times  through  a  forest,  and 
yet  could  not  name,  within  half  a  dozen,  the  various 
species  of  trees  which  compose  it ;  and  so  with 
everything  else  to  which  they  are  accustomed.  They 
need  even  more  than  knowledge  an  intellectual  awak- 
ening ;  and  this  they  could  hardly  fail  to  receive  from 
the  discussions  of  an  intelligent  and  earnest  Farmers' 
Club. 

A  genuine  and  lively  interest  in  their  vocation  is 
needed  by  many  farmers,  and  by  most  farmers'  sons. 


258  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Too  many  of  these  regard  their  homesteads  as  a 
prison,  in  which  they  must  remain  until  some  avenue 
of  escape  into  the  great  world  shall  open  before  them. 
The  farm  to  such  is  but  the  hollow  log  into  which  a 
bear  crawls  to  wear  out  the  rigors  of  Winter  and 
await  the  advent  of  Spring.  Too  many  of  our  boys 
fancy  that  they  know  too  much  for  farmers,  when  in 
fact  they  know  far  too  little.  A  good  Farmers'  Club, 
faithfully  attended,  would  take  this  conceit  out  of 
them,  imbuing  them  instead  with  a  realizing  sense  of 
their  ignorance  and  incompetency,  and  a  hearty  de- 
sire for  practical  wisdom. 

A  recording  secretary,  able  to  state  in  the  fewest 
words  each  important  suggestion  or  fact  elicited  in 
the  course  of  an  evening's  discussion,  would  be 
hardly  less  valuable  or  less  honored  than  a  capable 
president.  A  single  page  would  often  suffice  for  all 
that  deserves  such  record  out  of  an  evening's  discus- 
sion ;  and  this,  being  transferred  to  a  book  and  pre- 
served, might  be  consulted  with  interest  and  profit 
throughout  many  succeeding  years.  No  other  duty 
should  be  required  of  the  member  who  rendered  this 
service,  the  correspondence  of  the  Club  being  de- 
volved upon  another  secretary.  The  habit  of  bring- 
ing grafts,  or  plants,  ar  seeds,  to  Club  meetings,  for 
gratuitous  distribution,  has  been  found  to  increase 
the  interest,  and  enlarge  the  attendance  of  those 
formerly  indifferent.  Almost  every  good  farmer  or 
gardener  will  sometimes  have  choice  seeds  or  grafts 
to  spare,  which  he  does  not  care  or  cannot  expect  to 


FARMERS'  CLUBS.  259 

sell,  and  these  being  distributed  to  the  Club  will  not 
only  increase  its  popularity,  but  give  him  a  right  to 
share  when  another's  surplus  is  in  like  manner  dis- 
tributed. If  one  has  choice  fruits  to  give  away,  the 
Club  will  afford  him  an  excellent  opportunity ;  but  I 
would  rather  not  attract  persons  to  its  meetings  by  a 
prospect  of  having  their  appetites  thus  gratified  at 
others'  expense.  A  Flower-Show  once  in  each  year, 
and  an  Exhibition  of  Fruits  and  other  choice  products 
at  an  evening  meeting  in  September  or  October, 
should  suffice  for  festivals.  Let  each  member  con- 
sider himself  pledged  to'  bring  to  the  Exhibition  the 
best  material  result  of  his  year's  efforts,  and  the  ag- 
gregate will  be  satisfactory  and  instructive. 

The  organization  of  a  Farmers'  Club  is  its  chief 
difficulty.  The  larger  number  of  those  who  ought  to 
participate  usually  prefer  to  stand  back,  not  commit- 
ting themselves  to  the  effort  until  after  its  success  has 
been  assured.  To  obviate  this  embarrassment,  let  a 
paper  be  circulated  for  signatures,  pledging  each 
signer  to  attend  the  introductory  meeting  and  bring 
at  least  a  part  of  his  family.  When  forty  have 
signed  such  a  call,  success  will  be  well-nigh  as- 
sured. 


XLIV. 

WESTERN    IBBIGATION. 

I  HAVE  already  set  forth  my  belief  that  Irrigation 
is  everywhere  practicable,  is  destined  to  be  generally 
adopted,  and  to  prove  signally  beneficent.  I  do  not 
mean  that  every  acre  of  the  States  this  side  of  the 
Missouri  will  ever  be  thus  supplied  with  water,  but 
that  some  acres  of  every  township,  and  of  nearly 
every  farm,  should  and  will  be.  I  propose  herein  to 
speak  with  direct  reference  to  that  large  portion  of 
our  country  which  cannot  be  cultivated  to  any  pur- 
pose without  Irrigation.  This  region,  which  is  prac- 
tically rainless  in  Summer,  may  be  roughly  indicated 
as  extending  from  the  forks  of  the  Platte  westward, 
and  as  including  all  our  present  Territories,  a  portion 
of  Western  Texas,  the  entire  State  of  Nevada,  and 
at  least  nine-tenths  of  California.  On  this  vast  area, 
no  rain  of  consequence  falls  between  April  and  No- 
vember, while  its  soil,  parched  by  fervid,  cloudless 
suns,  and  swept  by  intensely  dry  winds,  is  utterly  di- 
vested of  moisture  to  a  depth  of  three  or  four  feet ; 
and  I  have  seen  the  tree  known  as  Buckeye  growing 
in  it,  at  least  six  inches  in  diameter,  whereon  every 
(260) 


WESTERN   IRRIGATION.  261 

leaf  was  withered  and  utterly  dead  before  the  end  of 
August,  though  the  tree  still  lived,  and  would  renew 
its  foliage  next  Spring. 

Most  of  this  broad  area  is  usually  spoken  of  as  des- 
ert, because  treeless,  except  on  the  slopes  of  its  moun- 
tains, where  certain  evergreens  would  seem  to  dis- 
pense with  moisture,  and  on  the  brink  of  infrequent 
and  scanty  streams,  where  the  all  but  worthless  Cot- 
ton-wood is  often  found  growing  luxuriantly.  A  very 
little  low  Gamma  Grass  on  the  Plains,  some  strag- 
gling Bunch-grass  on  the  mountains,  with  an  endless 
profusion  of  two  poor  shrubs,  popularly  known  as 
Sage-brush  and  Grease-wood,  compose  the  vegetation 
of  nearly  or  quite  a  million  square  miles. 

I  will  confine  myself  in  this  essay  to  the  readiest 
means  of  irrigating  the  Plains,  by  which  I  mean  the 
all  but  treeless  plateau  that  stretches  from  the  base 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  300  to  400  miles  eastward, 
sloping  imperceptibly  toward  the  Missouri,  and 
drained  by  the  affluents  of  the  Platte,  the  Kansas, 
and  the  Arkansas  rivers. 

The  North  Platte  has  its  sources  in  the  western,  as 
the  South  Platte  has  in  the  eastern,  slopes  of  the 
Rocky  Mountains.  Each  of  them  pursues  a  gener- 
ally north-east  course  for  some  300  miles,  and  then 
turns  sharply  to  the  eastward,  uniting  some  300  miles 
eastward  of  the  mountains,  where  the  Plains  melt 
into  the  Prairies.  Between  these  two  rivers  and  the 
eastern  base  of  the  mountains  lies  an  irregular  delta 
or  triangle,  which  seems  susceptible  of  irrigation  at 


262  WHAT    I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

a  smaller  cost  than  the  residue.  The  location  of 
Union  Colony  may  be  taken  as  a  fair  illustration  of 
the  process,  and  the  facilities  therefor  afforded  by 
nature. 

Among  the  streams  which,  taking  rise  in  the  east- 
ern gorges  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  run  into  the 
South  Platte,  the  most  considerable  has  somehow  ac- 
quired the  French  name  of  Cache  la  Poudre.  It 
heads  in  and  about  Long's  Peak,  and,  after  emerging 
from  the  mountains,  runs  some  20  to  25  miles  nearly 
due  east,  with  a  descent  in  that  distance  of  about  100 
feet.  Its  waters  are  very  low  in  Autumn  and  Winter, 
and  highest  in  May,  June  and  July,  from  the  melt- 
ing of  snow  and  ice  on  the  lofty  mountains  which  feed 
it.  Like  all  the  streams  of  this  region,  it  is  broad 
and  shallow,  with  its  bed  but  three  to  four  feet  below 
the  plains  on  either  side. 

Greeley,  the  nucleus  of  Union  Colony,  is  located 
at  the  crossing  of  the  Cache  la  Poudre  by  the  Denver- 
Pacific  Railroad,  about  midway  of  its  course  from 
the  Kansas  Pacific  at  Denver  northward  to  the 
Union  Pacific  at  Cheyenne.  Here  a  village  of  some 
400  to  500  houses  has  suddenly  grown  up  during  the 
past  Summer. 

The  first  irrigating  canal  of  Union  Colony  leaves 
the  Cache  la  Poudre  six  or  eight  miles  above  Greeley, 
on  the  south  side,  and  is  carried  gradually  further  and 
further  from  the  stream  until  it  is  fully  a  mile  distant 
at  the  village,  whence  it  is  continued  to  the  Platte. 
Branches  or  ditches  lead  thence  northward,  conveying 


WESTERN.  IBKIGATIOK.  263 

rills  through  the  streets  of  the  village,  the  gardens  or 
plats  of  its  inhabitants,  and  the  public  square,  or 
plaza,  which  is  designed  to  be  its  chief  ornament. 
Other  branches  lead  to  the  farms  and  five-acre  allot- 
ments whereby  the  village  is  surrounded;  as  still 
others  will  do  in  time  to  all  the  land  between  the 
canal  and  the  river.  In  due  time,  another  canal  will 
be  taken  out  from  a  point  further  up  the  stream,  and 
will  irrigate  the  lands  of  the  colony  lying  south  of 
the  present  canal,  and  which  are  meantime  devoted 
to  pasturage  in  common. 

Taking  the  water  out  of  the  river  is  here  a  very 
simple  matter.  At  the  head  of  an  island,  a  rude 
dam  of  brush  and  stones  and  earth  is  thrown  across 
the  bed  of  the  stream,  so  as  to  raise  the  surface  two 
or  three  feet  when  the  water  is  lowest,  and  very  much 
less  when  it  is  highest.  Thus  deflected,  a  portion  of 
the  water  flows  easily  into  the  canal. 

A  very  much  larger  and  longer  canal,  leaving  the 
Cache  la  Poudre  close  to  the  mountains,  and  gradu- 
ally increasing  its  distance  from  that  stream  to  four 
or  five  miles,  is  now  in  progress  by  sections,  and  is  to 
be  completed  this  "Winter.  Its  length  will  be  thirty 
miles,  and  it  will  irrigate,  when  the  necessary  sub- 
canals  shall  have  been  constructed,  not  less  than 
40,000  acres.  But  it  may  be  ten  years  before  all  this 
work  is  completed  or  even  required.  The  lauds  most 
easily  watered  from  the  main  canal  will  be  first 
brought  into  cultivation ;  the  sub-canals  will  be  dug 
as  they  shall  be  wanted. 


264  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

At  first,  members  of  the  Colony  arriving  at  its  lo- 
cation, hesitated  to  take  farm  allotments  and  bnild 
upon  them,  from  distrust  of  the  capacities  of  the  soil. 
They  saw  nothing  of  value  growing  upon  it ;  the  lit- 
tle grass  found  upon  it  was  short,  thin,  and  brown.  It 
was  not  black,  like  the  prairies  and  bottoms  of  Illinois 
and  Kansas,  but  of  a  light  yellow  snuff-color,  and 
deemed  sterile  by  many.  But  a  few  took  hold,  and 
planted  and  sowed  resolutely ;  and,  though  it  was  too 
late  in  the  season  for  most  grains,  the  results  were 
most  satisfactory.  Wheat  sown  in  June  produced  30 
bushels  to  the  acre ;  Oats  did  as  well ;  while  Pota- 
toes, Beets,  Turnips,  Squashes,  Cabbages,  etc.,  yielded 
bounteously ;  Tomatoes  did  likewise,  but  the  plants 
were  obtained  from  Denver.  Little  was  done  with 
Indian  Corn,  but  that  little  turned  out  well,  though  I 
judge  that  the  Summer  nights  are  too  cold  here  to 
justify  sanguine  expectations  of  a  Corn  -  crop — the 
altitude  being  5,000  feet  above  the  sea,  with  snow- 
covered  mountains  always  visible  in  the  west.  For 
other  Grains,  and  for  all  Vegetables  and  Grasses,  I 
believe  there  is  no  better  soil  in  the  world. 

To  many,  the  cost  of  Irrigation  would  seem  so 
much  added  to  the  expense  of  cultivating  without 
irrigation  ;  but  this  is  a  mistake.  Here  is  land  en- 
tirely free  from  stump,  or  stick,  or  stone,  which  may 
easily  and  surely  be  plowed  or  seeded  in  March  or 
April,  and  which  will  produce  great  crops  of  nearly 
every  grain,  grass  or  vegetable,  with  a  very  moderate 
outlay  of  labor  to  subdue  and  till  it.  The  farmer 


WESTERN   IRRIGATION.  265 

need  not  lose  three  days  per  annum  by  rains  in  the 
growing  season,  and  need  not  fear  storm  or  shower 
when  he  seeks  to  harvest  his  grass  or  grain.  Nothing 
like  ague  or  any  malarious  disease  exhausts  his  vital- 
ity or  paralyzes  his  strength.  I  saw  men  breaking 
up  for  the  first  time  tracts  which  had  received  no 
water,  using  but  a  single  span  of  horses  as  team ; 
whereas,  breaking  up  in  the  Prairie  States  involves  a 
much  larger  outlay  of  power.  The  advantage  of 
early  sowing  is  very  great ;  that  of  a  long  planting 
season  hardly  less  so.  I  believe  a  farmer  in  this  col- 
ony may  keep  his  plow  running  through  October, 
November,  and  a  good  portion  of  December ;  start  it 
again  by  the  1st  of  March,  and  commence  seeding 
with  Wheat,  Oats,  and  Barley,  and  keep  seeding,  in- 
cluding planting  and  gardening,  until  the  first  of 
June,  which  is  soon  enough  to  plant  potatoes  for 
Winter  use.  Thenceforth,  he  may  keep  the  weeds 
out  of  his  Corn,  Roots,  and  Yegetables,  for  six  weeks 
or  two  months  ;  and,  as  every  day  is  a  bright  working- 
day,  he  can  get  on  much  faster  than  he  could  if  liable 
to  frequent  interruptions  by  rains.  I  estimate  the 
cost  of  bringing  water  to  each  farm  at  $5  per  acre, 
and  that  of  leading  it  about  in  sub-ditches,  so  that 
it  shall  be  available  and  applicable  on  every  acre  of 
that  farm,  at  somewhat  less  ;  but  let  us  suppose  that 
the  first  cost  of  having  water  everywhere  and  always 
at  command  is  $10  per  acre,  and  that  it  will  cost 
thereafter  $1  per  acre  to  apply  it,  I  maintain  that  it 
is  richly  worth  having,  and  that  nearly  every  farm 

12 


266  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

product  can  be  grown  cheaper  by  its  help  than  on 
lands  where  irrigation  is  presumed  unnecessary. 
There  are  not  many  acres  laid  down  to  grass  in  New- 
England,  whether  for  hay  or  pasture,  that  would  not 
have  justified  an  outlay  of  $10  per  acre  to  secure 
their  thorough  irrigation  simply  for  this  year  alone. 


XLV. 

SEWAGE. 

THE  great  empires  of  antiquity  were  doomed  to 
certain  decay  and  dissolution  by  a  radical  vice  inhe- 
rent in  their  political  and  social  constitution.  Power 
rapidly  built  up  a  great  capital,  whereto  population 
was  attracted  from  every  quarter;  and  that  capital 
Became  a  focus  of  luxury  and  consumption.  Grain, 
Meat,  and  Yegetables — the  fat  of  the  land  and  the 
spoils  of  the  sea — were  constantly  absorbed  by  it  in 
enormous  quantities  ;  while  nothing,  or,  at  best,  very 
little,  was  returned  therefrom  to  the  continually  ex- 
hausted and  impoverished  soil.  Thus,  a  few  ages,  or 
at  most  a  few  centuries,  sufficed  to  divest  a  vast  sur- 
rounding district,  first,  of  its  fertility,  ultimately  of 
its  capacity  for  production.  And  so  Nineveh,  Thebes, 
Babylon,  successively  ceased  to  be  capitals,  and  be- 
came ruins  amid  deserts.  Rome  impoverished  Italy 


SEWAGE.  267 

south  of  the  Apennines ;  then  Sicily ;  and,  at  last, 
Egypt :  her  sceptre  finally  departing,  because  her 
millions  could  no  longer  be  fed  without  dispersion. 

That  some  means  must  be  devised  whereby  to  re- 
turn to  the  soil  those  elements  which  the  removal  of 
crop  after  crop  inevitably  exhausts,  is  a  truth  which 
has  but  recently  begun  to  be  clearly  understood. 
Unluckily,  the  difficulty  of  such  restoration  is  seri- 
ously augmented  by  the  fact  that  cities,  and  all  con- 
siderable aggregations  of  human  beings,  tend  strongly 
in  our  day  to  locations  by  the  sea-side,  in  valleys,  and 
by  the  margins  of  rivers.  Anciently,  cities  and  vil- 
lages were  often  built  on  hill-tops,  or  at  considerable 
elevations,  because  foes  could  be  excluded  or  repelled 
from  such  locations  more  surely,  and  with  smaller 
force,  than  elsewhere.  From  such  elevations,  it  need 
not  have  been  difficult  to  diffuse,  by  means  of  water, 
all  that  could  be  gladly  spared  which  would  aid  to 
fertilize  the  adjacent  farms  and  gardens.  A  kindred 
distribution  of  the  exuviae  of  our  modern  cities  is  a 
far  more  difficult  and  costly  undertaking,  and  involves 
bold  and  skillful  engineering. 

Yet  the  problem,  though  difficult,  must  be  solved, 
or  our  great  cities  will  be  destroyed  by  their  own 
physical  impurities.  The  growth  and  expansion  of 
cities,  throughout  the  present  century,  have  been 
wholly  beyond  precedent ;  and  thus  the  difficulty  of 
making  a  satisfactory  disposition  of  their  offal  has 
been  fearfully  augmented.  The  sewerage  of  our 
streets  and  houses  modifies  the  problem,  but  does  not 


268  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

solve  it.  Desolating  epidemics,  like  the  Plague,  Yel- 
low Fever,  and  the  Cholera,  will  often  visit  our  great 
cities,  and  decimate  their  people,  unless  means  can 
be  found  to  cleanse  them  wholly  and  incessantly  of 
whatever  tends  to  pollute  and  render  noisome  their 
atmosphere. 

SEWAGE  is  the  term  used  in  England  to  designate 
water  which,  having  been  slightly  impregnated  with 
the  feculence  and  ordure  of  a  city  or  village,  is 
diffused  over  a  farm  or  farms  adjacent,  in  order  to  im- 
part at  once  fertility  and  moisture  to  its  soil.  To 
secure  an  equable  and  thorough  dissemination  of 
Sewage,  it  is  essential  that  the  land  to  which  it  is  ap- 
plied, if  not  originally  level  or  nearly  so,  shall  bo 
brought  into  such  condition  that  the  impregnated 
water  may  be  applied  to  its  entire  surface,  and  shall 
thence  settle  into,  moisten,  and  fertilize,  each  cubic 
inch  of  the  soil.  This  involves  a  very  considerable 
initial  outlay  ;  but  the  luxuriance  of  the  crops  unfail- 
ingly produced,  under  the  influence  of  this  vivifying 
irrigation,  abundantly  justifies  and  rewards  that  out- 
lay. 

As  yet,  the  application  of  Sewage  is  in  its  infancy ; 
since  the  perfect  and  total  conversion  of  all  that  a 
great  city  excretes  into  the  most  available  food  for 
plants,  requires  not  only  immense  mains  and  res- 
ervoirs, with  a  costly  network  of  distributing  dykes 
or  ditches,  but  novel  appliances  in  engineering,  and 
a  large  investment  of  time  as  well  as  money.  Years 
must  yet  elapse  before  all  the  excretions  of  a  great 


SEWAGE.  269 

city  like  London  or  New- York  can  thus  be  trans- 
muted into  the  means  of  fertilizing  whole  counties 
in  their  vicinity.  But  the  work  is  already  well  be- 
gun, and  another  generation  will  see  it  all  but  com- 
pleted. Meantime,  many  smaller  cities,  more  eligibly 
located  for  the  purpose,  are  already  enriching  by 
their  Sewage  the  rural  districts  adjacent,  which  they 
had  previously  tended  strongly  to  impoverish.  Edin- 
burgh, the  capital  of  Scotland,  is  among  them.  The 
little  village  of  Romford,  England,  is  one  of  those 
which  have  recently  been  made  to  contribute  by 
Sewage  to  this  beneficent  end  ;  and  a  visit  of  inspec- 
tion paid  to  it,  on  the  15th  of  October  last,  by  the 
London  Board  of  Works,  elicited  accounts  of  the 
process  and  its  results,  in  the  London  journals,  which 
afforded  hints  for  and  incitement  to  similar  under- 
takings in  this  and  other  countries — undertakings 
which  may  be  postponed,  but  the  only  question  is 
one  of  time.  The  Dail/y  News  of  Oct.  17th,  says  : 

"  Breton's  Farm  consists  of  121  acres  of  light  and 
poor  gravelly  soil ;  and  it  now  receives  the  whole 
available  sewage  of  the  town  of  Romford — that  is,  of 
about  7,000  persons.  This  is  conveyed  to  the  land 
by  an  iron  pipe  of  18  inches  in  diameter,  which  is 
laid  under  ground,  and  discharges  its  contents  into 
an  open  tank.  From  this  tank,  the  sewage  is  pump- 
ed to  a  height  of  20  feet,  and  is  then  distributed  over 
the  land  by  iron  or  concrete  troughs,  or  '  carriers,' 
fitted  with  sluices  and  taps,  so  that  the  amount  of 
sewage  applied  to  any  given  portion  of  the  field  can 


270  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

be  regulated  with  the  greatest  facility  and  nicety. 
To  insure  the  regular  and  even  flow  of  the  sewage 
when  discharged  from  the  carriers,  it  was  necessary 
to  lay  out  the  land  with  mathematical  accuracy; 
and  it  has  been  leveled  and  formed  by  the  theodolite 
into  rectilinear  beds  of  uniform  width  of  thirty  feet, 
slightly  inclining  from  the  centres,  along  which  the 
sewage  is  applied.  The  carriers  or  open  troughs,  by 
which  the  sewage  is  conveyed,  run  along  the  top 
of  each  series  of  these  beds  or  strikes ;  and  at  the 
bottom  there  is  in  every  case  a  good  road,  by  means 
of  which  free  access  is  provided  for  a  horse  and  cart, 
or  for  the  steam  plow — the  use  of  which  is  in  con- 
templation— to  every  bed  and  crop.  These  arrange- 
ments— the  carrying  out  of  which  involved  the  re- 
moval of  six  hundred  trees  and  a  great  length  of 
heavy  fences,  the  filling  up  of  a  number  of  ditches  and 
no  less  than  nine  ponds,  as  well  as  the  complete 
under-draining  of  the  whole  farm — were  mainly  ef- 
fected last  year;  but  it  was  not  until  the  middle 
of  April,  1870,  that  Mr.  Hope  received  any  of  this 
sewage  from  the  town  of  Romford,  and  not  until 
the  following  month  that  he  obtained  both  the  day 
and  night  supply.  Satisfactory,  therefore,  as  have 
been  the  results  of  the  present  season's  operations, 
they  have  been  obtained  under  disadvantageous  cir- 
cumstances, and  cannot  be  regarded  as  affording 
complete  evidence  of  the  benefits  which  may  be  de- 
rived from  the  application  of  sewage  to  even  a  poor 
and  thin  soil,  which  had  already  ruined  more  than 


SEWAGE.  271 

one  of  those  who  had  attempted  to  cultivate  it.  To 
mention  only  one  drawback  which  arose  from  the 
lateness  of  the  period  at  which  the  sewage  was  first 
received,  Mr.  Hope  had  not  the  advantage  of  being 
able  to  apply  it  to  his  seed-beds:  and  thus  many, 
if  not  all  his  plants  were  not  ready  for  setting  out 
so  early  as  they  would  be  in  a  future  year,  and  some  of 
the  crops  have  suffered  in  consequence — that  is  to  say, 
have  suffered  in  a  comparative  sense.  Speaking 
positively,  they  have  in  all  instances  been  much 
larger,  not  only  than  any  that  could  have  been 
grown  upon  the  same  land  without  the  use  of  sew- 
age, but  than  any  which  have  been  raised  from 
much  superior  land  in  the  immediate  neighborhood. 
The  crops  which  have  been  or  are  being  raised  on 
different  parts  of  the  farm,  are  of  diverse  character ; 
but,  with  all,  the  method  of  cultivation  adopted  has 
been  attended  with  almost  equal  success.  Italian 
rye-grass,  beans,  peas,  mangolds,  carrots,  broccoli, 
cabbages,  savoys,  beet-root,  Batavia  yams,  Jersey 
cabbages,  and  Indian  corn,  have  all  grown  with 
wonderful  rapidity  and  yielded  abundant  harvests 
under  the  stimulating  and  nourishing  influence  of 
the  Romford  sewage.  The  visitors  of  Saturday  last,  as 
they  tramped,  over  the  farm  under  the  guidance  of 
its  energetic  proprietor,  had  an  opportunity  of  wit- 
nessing the  abundance  and  excellence  of  many  of 
these  crops.  Even  where  the  mangolds,  from  be- 
ing planted  late,  had  not  attained  any  extraordi- 
nary size,  it  was  noticeable  that  the  plants  were 


WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 


especially  vigorous,  and  that  there  was  not  a  vacant 
space  in  any  of  the  rows.  All  the  plants  which  had 
been  placed  in  the  ground  had  thriven,  and  would 
give  a  good  return.  Where  this  crop  had  been  spe- 
cially treated  with  a  view  to  forthcoming  shows,  the 
roots  had  attained  an  enormous  size,  and,  like  some 
of  the  cabbages,  had  assumed  almost  gigantic  pro- 
portions. The  carrots  were  very  fine  and  well-grown, 
and  the  heads  of  the  Walcheren  broccoli  were  as 
white,  and  firm,  and  crispy,  as  the  finest  cauliflowers ; 
while  the  savoys,  of  unusual  size  and  weight,  were  as 
round  and  hard  as  cannon  balls;  and  some  of  the 
drumhead  cabbages,  although  equally  distinguished 
for  closeness  and  firmness,  were  large  enough  in  the 
heart  to  hold  a  good-sized  child,  and  might,  as  was 
suggested  upon  the  ground,  very  well  be  introduced 
into  some  pantomimic  scene  representing  the  king- 
dom of  Brobdignag.  The  Indian  corn  had  reached 
the  respectable  height  of  some  eight  feet,  and,  with 
few  exceptions,  each  stalk  carried  a  good-sized  and 
well-filled  cob  or  ear.  These,  unless  we  should  have 
another  spell  of  exceptionally  hot  weather,  will  not 
ripen ;  but  in  their  green  state  they  are  readily  eaten 
by  horses  and  cattle,  and  prove  excellent  fodder. 

In  the  course  of  their  peregrinations,  Mr.  Hope's 
guests  of  course  paid  a  visit  to  the  tank  in  which  the 
sewage  is  received  before  it  is  pumped  on  the  land.  We 
need  hardly  say  that  the  appearance  of  this  minia- 
ture lake  of  nastiness  was  anything  but  agreeable ; 
but  its  odor  was  by  no  means  overpowering,  nor,  in- 


SEWAGE.  273 

deed,  very  offensive.  The  rill  of  bright,  clear  water 
which  flowed  in  at  one  corner,  and  some  of  which 
was  handed  about  in  tumblers,  looking  as  pure  as  the 
limpid  stream  which  flows  from  the  most  effective 
filters  that  are  to  be  seen  in  the  windows  of  London 
dealers,  had  only  a  short  time  before  flowed  out  of 
this  hideous  reservoir  in  a  very  different  state.  We 
had  met  it  in  the  "  carriers  "  flowing  along  in  a  dark, 
inky  stream,  not  smelling  much,  but  covered  with  an 
ugly  gray  froth  which  reminded  one  of  some  of  the 
most  disagreeable  details  in  the  manufacture  of  sugar 
and  ruin,  or  suggested  the  idea  that  it  had  been  used 
for  a  very  foul  wash  indeed.  With  these  reminiscen- 
ces fresh  in  one's  memory,  it  required  some  courage 
to  comply  with  the  pressing  invitations  to  taste  this 
1  effluent  water.'  There  were,  however,  many  of  the 
party  who  braved  the  attempt ;  and,  by  all  who  tasted 
it,  the  water  was  pronounced  to  be  destitute  of  any 
except  a  slightly  mineral  flavor.  In  dry  weather,  this 
effluent  water,  which  has  passed  through  the  land 
and  been  collected  by  the  drains,  after  mixing  with 
the  sewage,  is  again  pumped  over  the  fields  ;  in  wet 
weather,  it  can  be  turned  into  the  brook  which  is 
dignified  with  the  name  of  the  river  Rom.  *  *  * 
We  have  omitted  to  mention  that  the  rent  paid  by 
Mr.  Hope  is  £3  per  acre,  and  the  cost  of  the  sewage 
(at  2s.  per  head)  £6  more." 

— I  think  few  thoughtful  readers  will  doubt  that 
here  is  the  germ  of  a  great  movement  in  advance 
for  the  Agriculture  of  all  old  and  densely  peopled 
12* 


274  WHAT   I   KNOW  OF  FAEMWG. 

communities,  and  that  our  youngest  cities  and  man- 
ufacturing villages  may  wisely  consider  it  deeply, 
with .  a  view  to  its  ultimate  if  not  early  imitation. 
That  we  are  not  prepared  to  incur  the  inevitable  ex- 
pense of  a  thorough  system  of  sewerage  with  reference 
to  the  application  to  the  soil  of  all  the  fertilizing 
elements  that  a  city  would  gladly  spare,  by  no  means 
proves  that  we  should  not  consider  and  plan  with  a 
view  to  the  ultimate  creation  and  utilization  of 
Sewage. 


XLYI. 

MOEE   OP   IRRIGATION. 

I  HAVE  thus  far  considered  Irrigation  with  special 
reference  to  those  limited,  yet  very  considerable  dis- 
tricts, which  are  traversed  or  bordered  by  living 
streams,  and,  having  a  level  or  slightly  rolling  sur- 
face, present  obvious  facilities  for  and  incitements 
to  the  operation.  Such  are  the  valleys  of  the  Platte, 
and  of  nearly  or  quite  all  its  affluents  after  they  leave 
the  Rocky  Mountains ;  such  is  the  valley  of  the  upper 
Arkansas  ;  such  the  valleys  of  the  Smoky  Hill  and  the 
Republican,  so  far  down  as  Irrigation  maybe  con- 
sidered necessary.  Irrigation  on  all  these  seems  to  me 
inevitable,  and  certain  to  be  speedily,  though  capri- 
ciously, effected. 

I  believe  a  dam  across  either  fork  of  the  Platte,  at 


MOKE   OF   IKKIGATION.  275 

any  favorable  point  above  their  junction,  raising  the 
surface  of  the  stream  six  feet,  at  a  cost  not  exceed- 
ing $10,000,  would  suffice  to  irrigate  completely  not 
less  than  fifty  square  miles  of  the  valley  below  it, 
while  serving  at  the  same  time  to  furnish  power  for 
mills  and  factories  to  a  very  considerable  extent ;  for 
the  need  of  Irrigation  is  not  incessant,  but  generally 
confined  to  two  or  three  months  per  annum,  and  all  of 
the  volume  of  the  stream  not  needed  for  Irrigation 
could  be  utilized  as  power.  Thus  the  valleys  of  the 
few  constant  water-courses  of  the  Plains  may  come 
at  an  early  day  to  employ  and  subsist  a  dense  and 
energetic  population,  engaged  in  the  successful  prose- 
cution alike  of  agriculture  and  manufactures,  while 
belts,  groves,  and  forests,  of  choice,  luxuriant  timber, 
will  diversify*  and  embellish  regions  now  bare  of 
trees,  and  but  thinly  covered  with  dead  herbage  from 
June  until  the  following  April. 

But,  when  we  rise  above  the  bluffs,  and  look  off 
across  the  blank,  bleak  areas  where  no  living  water 
exists,  the  problem  becomes  more  difficult,  and  its 
solution  will  doubtless  be  much  longer  postponed. 
To  a  stranger,  these  bleak  uplands  seem  sterile ;  and, 
though  such  is  not  generally  the  fact,  the  presump- 
tion will  repel  experiments  which  involve  a  large 
initial  outlay.  The  railroad  companies,  which  now 
own  large  tracts  of  these  lands,  will  be  obliged 
either  to  demonstrate  their  value,  or  to  incite  indi- 
viduals and  colonists  to  do  it  by  liberal  concessions. 
As  the  case  stands  to-day,  most  of  these  lands,  which 


276  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

would  have  been  dear  at  five  cents  per  acre  before 
the  roads  were  built,  could  not  be  sold  at  any  price 
to  actual  settlers,  even  with  the  railroad  in  plain 
eight,  because  of  the  dearth  of  fuel  and  timber,  and 
because  also  the  means  of  rendering  them  fruitful 
and  their  cultivation  profitable  are  out  of  reach 
of  the  ordinary  pioneer.  Hence,  so  long  as  the 
valleys  of  the  living  streams  proffer  such  obvious  in- 
vitations to  settlement  and  tillage,  by  the  aid  of  Irriga- 
tion, I  judge  that  the  higher  and  dryer  plains  will 
mainly  be  left  to  the  half-savage  herdsmen  who  rear 
cattle  and  sheep  without  feeding  and  sheltering 
them,  by  giving  them  the  range  of  a  quarter-section 
to  each  bullock,  and  submitting  to  the  loss  of  a  hun- 
dred head  or  so  after  each  great  and  cold  snow- 
storm, as  an  unavoidable  dispensation  pf  Providence. 

But  in  process  of  time  even  the  wild  herdsmen 
will  be  softened  into  or  replaced  by  regular  farmers, 
plowing  and  seeding  for  vegetables  and  small  grains, 
sheltering  their  habitations  with  trees,  and  sending 
their  children  to  school.  This  change  involves 
Irrigation ;  and  the  following  are  among  the  ways 
in  which  it  will  be  effected : 

The  Plains  are  nowhere  absolutely  flat  (as  I  pre- 
sume the  "  desert "  of  Sahara  is  not),  but  diversified 
by  slopes,  and  swells,  and  gentle  ridges  or  divides, 
affording  abundant  facilities  for  the  distribution  of 
water.  A  well,  sunk  on  the  crest  of  one  of  these 
divides,  will  be  filled  with  living  water  at  a  depth 
ranging  from  50  to  100  feet.  A  windmill  of  modest 


MOEE   OF   IRBIGATION.  277 

dimensions  placed  over  this  well  will  be  rarely  stop- 
ped for  want  of  impelling  power :  Wind  being, 
next  to  space,  the  thing  most  abundant  on  the 
Plains.  A  reservoir  or  pond  covering  three  or  four 
acres  may  be  made  adjacent  to  the  well  at  a  small 
cost  of  labor,  by  excavating  slightly  and  using  the 
earth  to  form  an  embankment  on  the  lower  side. 
The  windmill,  left  alone,  will  fill  the  reservoir  during 
the  windy  Winter  and  Spring  months  with  water 
soon  warmed  in  the  sun,  and  ready  to  be  drawn  off 
as  wanted  throughout  the  thirsty  season  of  vegetable 
growth  and  maturity.  Carefully  saved,  the  product 
of  one  well  will  serve  to  moisten  and  vivify  a  good 
many  acres  of  grass  or  tillage. 

Such  is  the  retail  plan  applicable  to  the  wants  of 
solitary  farmers ;  bnt  I  hope  to  see  it  supplemented 
and  invigorated  by  the  extensive  introduction  of 
Artesian  wells,  whereof  two,  by  way  of  experiment, 
are  now  in  progress  at  Denver  and  Kit  Carson  re- 
spectively. 

I  need  not  here  describe  the  Artesian  well,  farther 
than  to  say  that  it  is  made  by  boring  to  a  depth 
ranging  from  700  to  more  than  a  1000  feet,  tubing  re- 
gularly from  the  top  downward  until  a  stream  is 
reached  which  will  rise  to  and  above  the  surface, 
flowing  over  the  top  of  the  tube  in  a  stream  often  as 
large  as  an  average  stove-pipe.  Such  a  well,  after 
supplying  a  settlement  or  modest  village  with  water, 
may  be  made  to  fill  a  reservoir  that  will  sufficiently 
irrigate  a  thousand  cultivated  acres.  Its  water  will 


278  WHAT   I  KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

usually  be  warmer  than  though  obtained  from  near 
the  surface,  and  hence  better  adapted  to  Irrigation. 

Of  course,  the  Artesian  well  is  costly,  and  will  not 
soon  be  constructed  for  uses  purely  agricultural ;  but 
the  railroads  traversing  the  Plains  and  the  Great  Basin 
will  sometimes  be  compelled  to  resort  to  one  with- 
out having  use  for  a  twentieth  part  of  the  water  they 
thus  entice  from  the  bowels  of  the  earth ;  and  that 
which 'they  cannot  use  they  will  be  glad  to  sell  for  a 
moderate  price,  thus  creating  oases  of  verdure  and 
bounteous  production.  The  palpable  interest  of  rail- 
roads in  dotting  their  long  lines  of  desolation  with 
such  cheering  contrasts  of  field  and  meadow  and 
waving  trees,  render  nowise  doubtful  their  hearty 
cooperation  with  any  enterprising  pioneer  who  shall 
bring  the  requisite  capital,  energy,  knowledge,  and 
faith,  to  the  prosecution  of  the  work. 

These  are  but  hasty  suggestions  of  methods  which 
will  doubtless  be  multiplied,  varied,  and  improved 
upon,  in  the  light  of  future  experience  and  study. 
And  when  the  very  best  and  most  effective  methods 
of  subduing  the  Plains  to  the  uses  of  civilized  man 
shall  have  been  discovered  and  adopted,  there  will 
still  remain  vast  areas  as  free  commons  for  the  herds- 
men and  sporting-grounds  for  the  hunter  of  the  Elk 
and  the  Antelope,  after  the  Buffalo  shall  have  utterly- 
disappeared. 

I  do  not  doubt  the  assertion  of  the  plainsmen  that 
rain  increases  as  settlements  are  multiplied.  Cross- 
ing the  Plains  in  1859, 1  noted  indications  that  timber 


MORE  OF  IRRIGATION.  279 

had  formerly  abounded  where  none  now  grows ;  and 
I  presume  that,  as  young  trees  are  multiplied  in  the 
wake  of  civilization,  finally  thickening  into  clumps 
of  timber  and  beginning  a  forest,  more  rain  will  fall, 
and  the  extension  of  woodlands  become  compara- 
tively easy.  But,  relatively  to  the  country  eastward 
of  the  Missouri,  the  Plains  will  always  be  arid  and 
thirsty,  with  a  pure,  bracing  atmosphere  that  will 
form  a  chief  attraction  to  thousands  suffering  from 
or  threatened  with  pulmonary  afflictions.  A  mil- 
lion of  square  miles,  whereon  is  found  no  single 
swamp  or  bog,  and  not  one  lake  that  withstands  the 
drouth  of  Summer,  can  never  have  a  moist  climate, 
and  never  fail  to  realize  the  need  of  Irrigation. 

The  Plains  will  in  time  give  lessons,  which  even 
the  well-watered  and  verdurous  East  may  read  with 
profit.  Such  level  and  thirsty  clays  as  largely 
border  Lake  Charnplain,  for  example,  traversed  by 
streams  from  mountain  ranges  on  either  hand,  will 
not  always  be  owned  and  cultivated  by  men  insen- 
sible to  the  profit  of  Irrigation.  Nor  will  such  rich 
valleys  as  those  of  the  Connecticut,  the  Kennebec, 
the  Susquehanna,  be  left  to  suffer  year  after  year  from 
drouth,  while  the  water  which  should  refresh  them 
runs  idly  and  uselessly  by.  Agriculture  repels  in- 
novation, and  loves  the  beaten  track;  but  such 
lessons  as  New-England  has  received  in  the  great 
drouth  of  1870  will  not  always  be  given  and  endured 
in  vain. 


XLYII. 

UNDEVELOPED   SOURCES   OF   POWER. 

THE  more  I  consider  the  present  state  of  our  Agri- 
culture, the  more  emphatic  is  my  discontent  with 
the  farmer's  present  sources  and  command  of  power. 
The  subjugation  and  tillage  of  a  farm,  liko  the  run- 
ning of  a  factory  or  furnace,  involves  a  continual  use 
of  Power;  but  the  manufacturer  obtains  his  from 
sources  which  supply  it  cheaply  and  in  great  abun- 
dance, while  the  farmer  has  been  content  with  an 
inferior  article,  in  limited  supply,  at  a  far  heavier 
cost.  Yet  the  stream  which  turns  the  factory's 
wheels  and  sets  all  its  machinery  in  motion  traverses 
or  skirts  many  farms  as  well,  and,  if  properly  har- 
nessed, is  just  as  ready  to  speed  the  plow  as  to  impel 
the  shuttles  of  a  woolen-mill,  or  revolve  the  cylin- 
ders of  a  calico-printery.  Nature  is  impartially  kind 
to  all  her  children ;  but  some  of  them  know  how  to 
profit  by  her  good-will  far  more  than  others.  No 
doubt,  we  all  have  much  yet  to  learn,  and  our  grand- 
children will  marvel  at  the  proofs  of  stupidity 
evinced  in  our  highest  achievements ;  but  I  am  not 
mistaken  in  asserting  that,  as  yet,  the  farmers'  con- 

(a8o) 


UNDEVELOPED   SOURCES   OF   POWEK.  281 

trol  o^Nature's  free  gifts  of  power  is  very  far  inferior 
to  that  of  nearly  every  other  class  of  producers. 

I  have  been  having  much  plowing  done  this  Fall — 
in  my  orchards,  for  what  I  presume  to  be  the  good  of 
the  trees ;  on  my  drained  swamp,  because  it  is  not 
yet  fully  subdued  and  sweetened,  and  I  judge  that 
the  Winter's  freezing  and  thawing  will  aid  to  bring 
it  into  condition.  And  then  my  swamp  lies  so  low 
and  absolutely  flat  that  the  thaws  and  rains  of 
Spring  render  plowing  it  in  season  for  Oats,  or  any 
other  crop  that  requires  early  seeding,  a  matter  of 
doubt  and  difficulty.  All  the  land  I  now  cultivate, 
or  seek  to  cultivate,  has  already  been  well  plowed 
more  than  once ;  no  stump  or  stone  impedes  pro- 
gress in  the  tracts  I  have  plowed  this  Fall;  yet  a 
good  plow,  drawn  by  two  strong  yoke  of  oxen,  rarely 
breaks  up  half  an  acre  per  day ;  and  I  estimate  two 
acres  per  week  about  what  has  been  averaged,  at  a 
cost  of  $18  for  the  plowman  and  driver ;  offsetting 
the  oxen's  labor  against  the  work  done  by  the  men 
at  the  barn  and  elsewhere  apart  from  plowing.  In 
other  words :  I  am  confident  that  my  plowing  has 
cost  me,  from  first  to  last,  at  least,  $10  per  acre,  and 
would  have  cost  still  more  if  it  had  been  done  as 
thoroughly  as  it  ought.  I  am  quite  aware  that  this 
is  high — that  sandy  soils  and  dry  loams  are  plowed 
much  cheaper  ;  and  that  farmers  who  plow  well  (with 
whom  I  do  not  rank  those  who  scratch  the  earth  to  a 
depth  of  four  or  five  inches)  do  it  at  a  much  lower 
rate.  Still,  I  estimate  the  average  cost  in  this  country 


282  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

of  plowing  land  twelve  inches  deep  at  $5  pe%acre  ; 
and  I  am  confident  that  it  does  not  cost  one  cent  less. 

Nor  is  cost  the  only  discouragement.  There  is  not 
half  so  much  nor  so  thorough  plowing  among  us, 
especially  in  the  Fall,  as  there  should  be.  The  soil 
is,  for  a  good  part  of  the  time,  too  dry  or  too  wet ; 
the  weather  is  inclement,  or  the  ground  is  frozen : 
so  the  plow  must  stand  still.  At  length,  the  signs 
are  auspicious ;  the  ground  is  in  just  the  right  con- 
dition ;  and  we  would  gladly  plow  ten,  twenty,  fifty 
acres  during  the  brief  period  wherein  it  remains  so  ; 
but  this  is  impossible.  Others  want  to  improve  the 
opportunity  as  well  as  we  ;  extra  teams  are  rarely  to 
be  had  at  any  price ;  and  our  own  slow-moving  oxen 
refuse  to  be  hurried.  Standing  half  a  mile  off,  you 
cwn  see  them  move,  if  your  eye-sight  is  keen,  and  you 
have  some  stationary  object  interposed  whereby  to 
take  an  observation ;  but  it  is  as  much  as  ever.  If 
your  soil  is  such  that  you  can  use  horses,  you  get  on, 
of  course,  much  faster;  but  all  that  you  gain  in 
breadth  you  are  apt  to  lose  in  depth.  There  may  be 
spans  that  will  take  the  plow  right  along  though 
you  sink  it  to  the  beam ;  but  they  are  sure  to  be 
slow  travelers.  I  never  knew  a  span  that  would 
plow  an  acre  per  day  as  I  think  it  should  be  plowed  ; 
though,  if  your. only  object  be  to  get  over  as  much 
ground  as  possible,  you  may  afflict  and  titillate  two 
acres,  or  as  much  more  as  you  please. 

Now,  I  have  before  me  a  letter  to  The  Times 
(London)  by  Mr.  William  Smith,  of  Woolston,  Bucks, 


UNDEVELOPED   SOURCES   OF  POWER.  283 

who  states  that  he  has  just  harvested  his  fifteenth 
annual  crop  cultivated  by  steam-power,  and  has 
prepared  his  land  for  the  sixteenth ;  and  he  gives 
details,  showing  that  he  breaks  up  and  ridges  heavy 
clay  soils  at  the  rate  of  six  acres  per  day,  and  plows 
lands  already  in  tillage  at  the  rate  of  fully  nine  acres 
per  day.  He  gives  the  total  cost,  (including  wear 
and  tear,)  of  breaking  up  a  foot  deep  and  ridging  65 
acres  in  September  and  October  in  this  year,  1870,  at 
£20  6s.  6d.  or  about  $100  in  gold :  call  it  $112  in 
our  greenbacks,  and  still  it  falls  eonsideraby  below 
$2  (greenbacks)  per  acre.  Say  that  labor  and  fuel 
are  twice  as  dear  in  this  country  as  in  England,  and 
this  would  make  the  cost  of  thoroughly  pulverizing 
by  steam-power  a  heavy  clay  soil  to  a  depth  of  twelve 
inches  less  than  $4  per  acre  here.  I  do  not  believe 
this  could  be  done  by  animal  power  at  $10  per 
acre,  not  considering  the  difficulty  of  getting  it  thor- 
oughly done  at  all.  Mr.  Smith  pertinently  says : 
"  Horse-power  could  not  give  at  any  cost  such  valu- 
able work  as  this  steam-power  ridging  and  subsoiling 
is."  He  tills  166  acres  in  all,  making  the  cost  of 
steam-plowing  his  stubble-land  4s.  8%d.  per  acre  (say 
$1  30  greenback).  And  he  gives  this  interesting 
item  : 

"  No.  5,  light  land,  12  acres,  was  ridge-plowed  and 
BTibsoiled  last  year  for  beans :  that  operation  left  the 
land,  after  the  bean-crop  came  off.  in  so  nice  a  state, 
that  cultivating  once  over  with  horses,  at  a  cost  of 
2$.  per  acre,  was  all  that  was  needed  this  Antumn  for 


284:  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FABMING. 

wheat  next  year.  The  wheat  was  drilled  four  days 
back." 

— N"ow  I  am  not  commending  Steam  as  the  best 
source  of  power  in  aid  of  Agriculture.  I  hope  we 
shall  be  able  to  do  better  ere  long.  I  recognize  the 
enormous  waste  involved  in  the  movement  of  an 
engine,  boiler,  etc.,  weighing  several  tons,  back  and 
forth  across  our  fields,  and  apprehend  that  it  must  be 
difficult  to  avoid  a  compression  of  the  soil  therefrom. 
A  stationary  engine  and  boiler  at  either  end  of  the  field, 
hauling  a  gang  of  plows  this  way  and  that  by  means 
of  ropes  and  pulleys,  must  involve  a  very  heavy  out- 
lay for  machinery  and  a  considerable  cost  in  its  re- 
moval from  farm  to  farm,  or  even  from  field  to  field. 
Either  of  these  may  be  the  best  device  yet  perfected ; 
but  we  are  bound  to  do  better  in  time. 

Precisely  how  and  when  the  winds  which  sweep 
over  our  fields  shall  be  employed  to  pulverize  and 
till  the  soil,  are  among  the  many  things  I  do  not 
know ;  but,  that  the  end  will  yet  be  achieved,  I  un- 
doubtingly  trust.  I  know  somewhat — not  much — of 
what  has  been  done  and  is  doing,  both  in  Europe 
and  America,  to  extend  and  diversify  the  utilization 
of  wind  as  a  source  of  power,'  and  to  compress  and 
retain  it  so  that  the  gale  which  sweeps  over  a  farm 
to-night  may  afford  a  reserve  or  fund  of  power  for 
its  cultivation  on  the  morrow  or  thereafter.  I  know 
a  little  of  what  has  been  devised  and  done  toward 
converting  and  transmitting,  through  the  medium 
of  compressed  air,  the  power  generated  by  a  water- 


UNDEVELOPED   SOURCES   OF   POWER.  285 

fall — say  Niagara  or  Minnehaha — so  that  it  may  be 
expended  and  utilized  at  a  distance  of  miles  from  its 
source,  impelling  machinery  of  all  kinds  at  half 
the  cost  of  steam.  I  know  vaguely  of  what  is  being 
done  with  Electricity,  with  an  eye  to  its  employ- 
ment in  the  production  of  power,  by  means  of  en- 
ginery not  a  tenth  so  weighty  and  cumbrous  as  that 
required  for  the  generation  and  utilization  of  Steam, 
and  by  means  of  a  consumption  (that  is,  transforma- 
tion) of  materials  not  a  hundredth  part  so  bulky  and 
heavy  as  the  water  and  steam  which  fill  the  boilers 
of  our  factories  and  locomotives.  I  am  no  mechan- 
ician, and  will  not  even  guess  from  what  source, 
through  what  agencies,  the  new  power  will  be  vouch- 
safed us  which  is  in  time  to  pulverize  our  fields  to 
any  required  depth  with  a  rapidity,  perfection,  and 
economy,  not  now  anticipated  by  the  great  body  of 
our  farmers.  But  my  faith  in  its  achievement  is  un- 
doubtiug ;  and,  though  I  may  not  live  to  see  it,  I 
predict  that  there  are  readers  of  this  essay  who  will 
find  the  forces  abundantly  generated  all  around  us  by 
the  spontaneous  movement  of  Wind,  Water,  and 
Electricity — one  or  more,  and  probably  by  all  of 
them— so  utilized  and  wielded  as  to  lighten  immensely 
the  farmer's  labor,  while  quadrupling  its  eificiency 
in  producing  all  by  which  our  Earth  ministers  to  the 
sustenance  and  comfort  of  man. 


XLYIH. 

KtJRAL  *  DEPOPULATION. 

COMPLAINT  is  widely  made  of  a  decrease  in  the  rel- 
ative population  of  our  rural  districts  ;  and  not  with- 
out reason,  or,  at  least,  plausibility.  I  presume  the 
Census  of  1870  will  return  no  more  farmers  in  the 
State  of  New  York,  and  probably  some  fewer  in 
New  England,  than  were  shown  by  the  Census  of 
1860.  The  very  considerable  augmentation  of  the 
number  of  their  people  will  be  found  living  wholly 
in  the  cities  and  incorporated  villages.  I  doubt 
whether  there  are  more  farmers  in  the  State  of  New 
York  to-day  than  there  were  .in  1840,  though  the 
total  population  has  meantime  doubled.  Many  farms 
have  been  transformed  into  country-seats  for  city 
bankers,  merchants,  and  lawyers ;  others  have  been 
consolidated,  so  that  what  were  formerly  two  or  three, 
now  constitute  but  one ;  and,  though  every  body 
says,  "  Our  farms  are  too  large  for  our  capital," 
"  We  run  over  too  much  land,"  etc.,  afcc.,  yet,  I  can 
hear  of  few  farms  that  have  been,  or  are  expected  to 
be,  divided,  except  into  village  or  city  lots ;  while  the 
prevalent  tendency  is  still  the  other  way.  An  ineffi- 
(286) 


RURAL   DEPOPULATION.  287 

cient  farmer  dies  heavily  in  debt,  or  is  sold  out  by 
the  sheriff:  his  farm  is  rarely  divided  between  two 
purchasers,  while  it  is  quite  often  absorbed  into  the 
estate  of  some  thrifty  neighbor ;  and  thus  small 
farmers  are  selling  out  and  moving  westward  much 
oftener  than  large  ones.  Such  are  the  obvious  facts : 
now  for  some  of  the  reasons  : 

I.  Our  State,  like  New  England,  was  originally  all 
but  covered  by  a  heavy  growth  of  forest.  The  re- 
moval of  this  timber  involved  very  much  hard  work, 
most  of  which  has  been  done  in  this  century,  and 
much  of  it  by  the  present  generation.  When  I  first 
traversed  Chautauqua  County,  forty-three  years  ago, 
from  two-thirds  to  three-fourths  of  her  acres  must 
have  been  still  covered  with  the  primeval  forest — a 
tall,  heavy  growth  of  Beech,  Maple,  Hemlock,  White 
Pine,  etc.,  which  yielded  very  slowly  to  the  efforts 
of  the  average  chopper.  Many  a  pioneer  gave  half 
his  working  hours  for  twenty  years  to  the  clearing 
off  of  Timber,  Fencing,  cutting  out  roads,  etc.,  and 
had  not  sixty  acres  in  arable  condition  at  the  last. 
Outside  of  the  villages,  the  population  of  that  county 
was  probably  as  great  in  1830  as  it  is  to-day,  though 
the  annual  production  of  her  tillage  was  not  half  what 
it  now  is.  Her  farms  are  now  made ;  her  remaining 
wood-lands  are  worth  about  as  much  per  acre  as  her 
tillage  ;  there  is  now  comparatively  little  timber-cut- 
ting, or  land-clearing ;  and  two-thirds  of  the  pioneers, 
or  their  sons  who  inherited  their  farms,  have  sold  out, 
or  ~been  sold  out,  and  pushed  further  westward. 


288  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

Meantime,  Grazing  and  Dairying  have  extensively 
supplanted  Grain-growing ;  and  farmers  who  found 
more  work  than  they  could  do  on  60  or  80  acres,  now 
manage  160  to  320  acres  with  ease.  I  do  not  say 
that  they  ought  not  to  farm  better  ;  I  only  state  the 
facts  that  they  thrive  by  this  dairy-farming,  and  are 
not  exhausting  their  lands.  And  what  is  true  of 
Chautauqua  is  measurably  true  of  half  the  rural 
Counties  in  our  State. 

II.  Formerly,  "Wood  was  the  only  fuel  known  to 
our  farmers,  while  immense  quantities   of  it  were 
burned  in  our  cities,  at  the  salt-works,  etc.     At  pres- 
ent, Wood  is  scarcely  used  for  fuel,  except  as  kindling, 
in  any  of  our  cities,  villages,  or  manufactories,  while 
the  consumption  of  Coal  by  our  farmers  is  already 
very  large,  and  rapidly  extending.     All  this  reduces 
the  demand  for  labor  on  our  farms  and  in  our  forests, 
while  increasing  the  corresponding  demand  in  the 
Coal  Mines,  and  on  the  railroads.     Luzerne  County, 
Pennsylvania,  has  doubled  her  population  within  the 
last  twelve  or  fourteen  years ;  and  this  at  the  expense 
of  our  rural  districts. 

III.  Our  agricultural  implements  and  machinery 
grow  annually  more  effective,  and  at  the  same  time 
more  costly.     The  outfit  of  a  good  farm  costs  five- 
fold what  it  did  forty  years  ago.     The  farmer  makes 
and  secures  his  Hay  far  more  rapidly  and  effectively 
than  his  father  did,  but  pays  far  more  for  Reapers, 
Mowers,   Rakers,  etc. ;   in  other  words,  he  makes 
Winter  work  abridge  that  of  Summer — makes  a  hun- 


RURAL   DEPOPULATION.  289 

dred  days'  work  in  some  village  or  city  save  thrice 
as  many  days'  work  on  his  farm.  This  enhances  his 
profits,  but  swells  our  urban,  while  it  diminishes  our 
rural  population. 

IV.  Much  has  been  said  of  the  degeneracy  and 
increasing  sterility  of  the  New  England  Puritan 
stock.  All  this  is  shallow  and  absurd.  There  never 
before  were  so  many  people  who  proudly  traced  their 
origin  to  a  New  England  ancestry  as  now.  What  is 
true  in  the  premises  is  this :  The  New  England  stock 
is  becoming  very  widely  diffused,  and  is  giving 
place,  to  a  considerable  extent,  to  other  elements  in 
its  original  home.  Forty  years  ago,  at  least  seven- 
eighths  of  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  were  of  New 
England  birth  and  lineage  ;  now,  hardly  half  are  so. 
The  descendants  of  the  Pilgrims  are  scattered  all 
over  our  wide  country  ;  while  hundreds  of  thousands 
have  flowed  in  from  Ireland,  from  Germany,  from 
Canada,  to  fill  the  places  thus  relinquished  ;  and, 
since  most  of  the  immigrants,  whether  into  or  out  of 
New  England,  seek  their  future  homes  in  the  spring- 
time of  life,  their  children  are  mainly  born  to  them 
after  rather  than  before  their  migration.  The  Yan- 
kees have  no  fewer  children  than  formerly  ;  but  they 
are  now  born  in  Minnesota,  in  Illinois,  in  Kansas ; 
while  those  born  in  New  England  are,  for  identical 
reasons,  in  large  proportion  of  Irish  or  of  Canadian 
parentage.  There  are  New  England  townships, 
whereof  most  of  the  heads  of  families  are  long  past 
the  prime  of  life ;  their  children  having  left  them 
13 


290  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

for  more  attractive  localities,  and  the  work  on  their 
farms  being  now  done  mainly  by  foreign-born  em- 
ployes. As  a  general  rule,  the  boys  first  wandered 
off,  leading  the  girls  only  the  alternative  of  following, 
or  dying  in  maidenhood.  Marked  diversities  of  race, 
of  creed,  and  of  education,  have  thus  far  prevented 
any  considerable  intermingling  of  the  Yankee  with 
the  foreign  element  by  marriage.  And  what  is  true 
of  New  England  is  measurably  true  of  our  own 
State. 

I  have  not  intended  by  these  observations  to  com- 
bat the  assumption  that  our  people  too  generally 
prefer  other  employments  to  farming.  The  obstacles 
to  effective  modern  Agriculture — that  is,  to  agricul- 
ture prosecuted  by  the  help  of  efficient  machinery- 
presented  by  that  incessant  alternation  of  rock  and 
bog,  which  characterizes  New  England  and  some 
parts  of  New  York,  I  have  already  noted  ;  and  they 
interpose  a  serious,  discouraging  impediment  to  agri- 
cultural progress.  A  farm  intersected  by  two  or 
three  swamps  and  brooks,  separated  by  steep,  rocky 
ridges,  and  dotted  over  with  pebbly  knolls,  some- 
times giving  place  to  a  strip  of  sterile  sand,  is  far 
more  repulsive  to  the  capable,  intelligent  farmer  of 
to-day  than  it  was  to  his  grandfather.  So  far  as  my 
observation  extends,  there  are  more  New  England 
farms  on  which  you  cannot,  than  on  which  you  can, 
find  ten  acres  in  one  unbroken  area  suitable  for  plant- 
ing to  Corn,  or  sowing  to  Winter  Grain.  Hence, 
Agriculture  in  the  East  will  always  seem  petty  and 


BUBAL   DEPOPULATION.  291 

irregular  when  brought  into  contrast  with  the  prairie 
cultivation  of  the  West.  Grain  can  never  be  grown 
here  so  cheaply  nor  so  abundantly  as  there ;  while 
the  tendency  of  our  pastures  to  cover  themselves  over 
with  moss  and  worthless  shrubs,  unless  frequently 
broken  up  and  reseeded,  makes  even  dairying  more 
difficult  and  costly  in  New  England  and  along  its 
western  border  than  in  almost  any  other  part  of  our 
country. 

Yet,  these  discouragements  are  balanced  by  com- 
pensations. Timber  springs  luxuriantly  and  grows 
rapidly  throughout  this  region  ;  while  our  harsh,  ca- 
pricious climate  gives  to  our  Hickory,  White  Oak, 
"White  Ash,  and  other  varieties,  qualities  unknown 
to  such  grown  elsewhere,  while  prized  everywhere. 
Apples,  and  most  fruits  of  the  Temperate  Zone,  do 
well  with  us ;  while  our  cities  and  manufacturing 
villages  proffer  most  capacious  markets.  Potatoes 
and  other  edible  roots  produce  liberally,  and  gener- 
ally command  good  prices.  Hay  sells  for  $12  to  $30 
per  ton,  is  easily  grown,  and  is  in  eager  and  increasing 
demand.  We  ought  to  produce  twice  our  present 
crop  from  the  same  area,  and  have  need  of  every 
pound  of  it ;  for  neither  our  cattle  nor  our  sheep  are 
nearly  so  numerous  nor  so  well  fed  as  they  should  be. 
In  short,  there  is  money  to  be  made,  by  those  who 
have  means  and  know  how,  by  buying  New  England 
farms,  tilling  them  better,  and  growing  much  larger 
crops  than  their  present  occupants  have  done.  There 
are  many  who  can  do  better  in  the  West ;  but  the 


292  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

right  men  can  still  make  money  by  farming  this  side 
of  the  Susquehanna  and  the  Genesee ;  and  I  would 
gladly  incite  some  thousands  more  of  them  to  try. 


XLIX. 

LARGE  AND  SMALL  FARMS. 

THERE  is  fascination  for  most  minds  in  naked  mag- 
nitude. The  young  colonel,  who  can  hardly  handle 
a  brigade  effectively  in  battle,  would  like  of  all  things 
to  command  a  great  army;  and  the  tiller  of  fifty 
rugged  acres  has  his  ravishing  dreams  of  the  delights 
inherent  in  a  great  Western  farm,  with  its  square 
miles  of  corn-fields,  and  its  thousands  of  cattle.  Each 
of  them  is  partly  right  and  partly  wrong. 

There  are  generals  capable  of  commanding  100,000 
men.  Napoleon  says  there  were  two  such  in  his  day 
— himself  and  another :  and  these  generally  find  the 
work  they  are  fit  for,  without  special  effort  or  aspira- 
tion. So  there  are  men,  each  of  whom  can  really 
farm  a  township,  not  merely  let  a  herd  of  cattle 
roam  over  it  unfed  and  unsheltered,  living  and  d}ring 
as  may  chance :  the  owners  expecting  to  grow  rich 
by  their  natural  increase.  This  ranching  is  not 
properly  farming  at  all,  but  a  very  different  and  far 
ruder  art.  I  judge  that  the  fanners  who  can  really 


LARGE  AND  SMALL  FARMS.          293 

till — or  even  graze — several  thousand  acres  of  land, 
so  as  to  realize  a  fair  interest  on  its  value,  are  even 
scarcer  than  the  farms  so  capacious. 

But  there  is  such  a  thing  as  farming  on  a  large 
scale ;  and  it  is  a  good  business  for  those  who  under- 
stand it,  and  have  all  the  means  it  requires.  The 
farmer  who  annually  grows  a  thousand  acres  of  good 
Grain,  and  takes  reasonable  care  of  a  thousand  head 
of  Cattle,  is  to  be  held  in  all  honor.  He  will  usually 
grow  both  his  Grain  and  his  Beef  cheaper  than  a 
small  farmer  could  do  it,  and  will  generally  find  a 
good  balance  on  the  right  side  when  he  makes  up 
and  squares  his  accounts  of  a  year's  operations.  I 
could  recommend  no  man  to  run  into  debt  for  a  great 
farm,  expecting  that  farm  to  work  him  out  of  it ;  but 
he  who  inherited  or  has  acquired  a  large  farm,  well 
stocked,  and  knows  how  to  make  it  pay,  may  well 
cling  to  it,  and  count  himself  fortunate  in  its  posses- 
sion. But  the  great  farmer  is  already  regarded  with 
sufficient  envy.  Most  boys  would  gladly  be  such  as 
he  is ;  the  difficulty  in  the  case  is  that  they  lack  the 
energy,  persistency,  resolution,  and  self-denial,  re- 
quisite for  its  achievement. 

We  will  leave  large  farms  and  farming  to  recom- 
mend themselves,  while  we  consider  more  directly  the 
opportunities  and  reasonable  expectations  of  the  small 
farmer. 

The  impression  widely  current  that  money  cannot 
be  made  on  a  small  farm — that,  in  farming,  the  great 
fish  eat  up  the  little  ones — is  deduced  from  very  im- 


294:  WHAT    I    KNOW    OF    FARMING. 

perfect  data.  I  have  admitted  that  Grain  and  Beef 
can  usually  be  produced  at  less  cost  on  great  than  on 
small  farms,  though  the  rule  is  not  without  excep- 
tions. I  only  insist  that  there  are  room  and  hope 
for  the  small  farmer  also,  and  that  large  farming  can 
never  absorb  nor  enable  us  to  dispense  with  small 
farms. 

I.  And  first  with  regard  to  Fruit.     Some  Tree- 
Fruits,  as  well  as  Grapes,  are  grown  on  a  large  scale 
in  California — it  is  said,  with  profit.     But  nearly  all 
our  Pears,  Apples,  Cherries,  Plums,  etc.,  are  grown 
by  small  farmers  or  gardeners,  and  are  not  likely  to 
be  grown  otherwise.     All  of  them  need  at  particular 
seasons  a  personal  attention  and  a  vigilance  which 
can  seldom  or  never  be  accorded  by  the  owners  or 
renters  of  large  farms.     Should  small  farms  be  gen- 
erally absorbed  into  larger,  our  Fruit-culture  would 
thenceforth  steadily  decline. 

II.  The  same  is  even  more  true  of  the  production 
of  Eggs  and  the  rearing  of  Fowls.    I  have  had  knowl- 
edge  of  several   attempts   at   producing  Eggs   and 
Fowls  on  a  large  scale  in  this  country,  but  I  have  no 
trustworthy  account  of  a  single  decided  success  in 
such  an  enterprise.     On  the  contrary,  many  attempts 
to  multiply  Fowls  by  thousands  have  broken  down, 
just  when  their  success  seemed  secure.     Some  con- 
tagious disease,  some  unforeseen  disaster,  blasted  the 
sanguine  expectations  of  the  experimenter,  and  trans- 
muted his  gold  into  dross. 

Yet,  I  judge  that  there  is  no  industry  more  capable 


LARGE  AND  SMALL  FARMS.          295 

of  indefinite  extension,  with  fair  returns,  than  Fowl- 
breeding  on  a  moderate  scale.  Eggs  and  Chickens 
are  in  universal  demand.  They  are  luxuries  appre- 
ciated alike  by  rich  and  poor;  and  they  might  be 
doubled  in  quantity  without  materially  depressing 
the  market.  Our  thronged  and  fashionable  watering- 
places  are  never  adequately  supplied  with  them ;  our 
cities  habitually  take  all  they  can  get  and  look  around 
for  more.  I  believe  that  twice  the  largest  number 
of  Chickens  ever  yet  produced  in  one  year  might  be 
reared  in  1871,  with  profit  to  the  breeders.  Even  if 
others  should  fail,  the  home  market  found  in  each 
family  would  prove  signally  elastic. 

This  industry  should  especially  commend  itself  to 
poor  widows,  struggling  to  retain  and  rear  their 
children  in  frugal  independence.  A  widow  who,  in 
the  neighborhood  of  a  city  or  of  a  manufacturing  vil- 
lage, can  rent  a  cottage  with  half  an  acre  of  south- 
ward-sloping, sunny  land,  which  she  may  fence  so 
tightly  as  to  confine  her  Hens  therein,  whenever  their 
roaming  abroad  would  injure  or  annoy  her  neighbors, 
and  who  can  incur  the  expense  of  constructing  there- 
on a  warm,  commodious  Hen-house,  may  almost  cer- 
tainly make  the  production  of  Eggs  and.  Fowls  a 
source  of  continuous  profit.  If  she  can  obtain  cheap- 
ly the  refuse  of  a  slaughter-house  for  feed,  giving  with 
it  meal  or  grain  in  moderate  quantities,  and  accord- 
ing that  constant,  personal,  intelligent  supervision, 
without  which  Fowl-breeding  rarely  prospers,  she 
may  reasonably  expect  it  to  pay,  while  affording  her 


296  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

an  occupation  not  subject  to  the  caprices  of  an  em- 
ployer, and  not  requiring  her  to  spend  her  days  away 
from  home. 

III.  Though  the  ordinary  Market  Yegetables  may 
be  grown  on  large  farms,  the  fact  that  they  seldom 
are  is  significant.  Cabbages,  Peas,  Poled  Beans, 
Tomatoes,  and  even  Potatoes,  are  mainly  grown  on 
small  farms,  as  they  always  have  been.  There  are 
sections  wherein  no  cash  market  for  Vegetables  ex- 
ists or  can  be  relied  on  ;  and  here  they  will  continue 
to  be  grown  to  the  extent  only  of  the  growers'  re- 
spective needs;  but  wherever  the  prevalence  of  man- 
ufactures or  the  neighborhood  of  a  great  city  gives 
reasonable  assurance  of  a  market,  they  are  grown  at 
a  profit  per  acre  which  is  rarely  realized  from  a 
Grain-crop.  No  less  than  $100  per  acre  is  often,  if 
not  generally,  achieved  by  the  growers  of  Cabbage 
around  this  city  ;  and  this  not  from  rich,  deep 
garden-mold,  but  from  fair  farming  land,  under- 
drained,  subsoiled,  and  liberally  manured. 

The  careless,  slipshod  farmer  may  do  better — that 
is,  he  will  not  fail  so  signally — in  Grain  cultivation  ; 
but  there  are  few  more  decided  or  brilliant  successes 
than  have  been  achieved  within  the  last  few  years 
within  sight  of  this  City,  and  wholly  in  the  tillage  of 
small  farms. 

I  trust  I  have  here  said  enough  to  show  that  there 
is  a  legitimate  and  promising  field  for  agricultural 
enterprise  and  effort,  other  than  that  which  contem- 


EXCHANGE   AND   DISTRIBUTION.  297 

plates  the  acquisition  and  rule  of  a  township,  and  that, 
while  farming  on  a  large  area  is  to  many  attractive 
and  inspiring,  there  are  scope  and  incitement  also  for 
tillage  on  a  humbler  scale — for  tillage  that  permits 
no  weed  to  ripen  seed,  and  no  nest  of  caterpillars  to 
flourish  a  month  undisturbed — for  tillage  that  achieves 
large  crops  and  profits  from  small  areas,  and  rejoices 
in  that  neatness  and  perfection  of  culture  attainable 
only  in  the  management  of  small  farms. 


EXCHANGE   AND   DISTRIBUTION. 

THE  machinery  whereby  the  farmer  of  our  day 
converts  into  cash  or  other  values  that  portion  of  his 
products  which  is  not  consumed  in  his  house  or  on 
his  farm,  seems  to  me  lamentably  imperfect.  Let  me 
illustrate  my  meaning : 

After  three  all  but  fruitless  years,  we  have  this 
year  a  bountiful  Apple-crop,  in  this  State  and  (I  be- 
lieve) throughout  the  North.  Our  old  orchards  being 
still,  for  the  most  part,  preserved  and  in  bearing  con- 
dition, while  a  good  many  young  ones,  planted  ten  to 
twenty  years  ago,  begin  to  fruit  considerably,  we 
had,  throughout  the  three  Fall  months,  a  superabun- 
13* 


298  WHAT   I    KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

dance  of  this  homely,  wholesome,  palatable  fruit.  It 
should  have  been  cheap  for  the  great  body  of  our 
mechanics  and  laborers  to  provide  their  families  with 
all  the  ripe,  good  Apples  that  they  could  consume 
without  injuring  themselves  by  gluttony.  Good  Ap- 
ples should  have  been  constantly  displayed  on  every 
workingman's  table,  to  be  eaten  raw  as  a  dessert,  or 
baked  and  eaten  with  bread  and  milk  for  breakfast 
or  supper.  Each  provident  housewife  should  now 
have  her  tub  of  apple-sauce,  her  barrel  of  dried  ap- 
ples, or  both,  for  "Winter  use ;  while  a  dozen  bushels 
of  good  keepers  should  be  stored  in  every  cellar,  to 
be  drawn  upon  from  day  to  day  during  the  next  four 
or  five  months.  In  short,  Apples  should  have  been 
and  be,  from  last  August  to  next  May,  as  common  as 
bread  and  potatoes,  and  should  have  been  and  be  as 
freely  eaten  in  every  household  and  by  every  fireside. 

How  nearly  have  we  realized  this  ? 

I  will  not  guess  how  many  millions  of  bushels 
have  rotted  under  the  trees  that  bore  them,  been 
eaten  by  animals  to  little  or  no  profit,  or  turned  into 
cider  that  did  not  sell  for  so  much  as  it  cost,  counting 
the  Apples  of  no  value.  Living  immediately  on  a 
railroad  that  runs  into  this  City,  wherefrom  my  place 
is  35  miles  distant,  I  should  be  able  to  do  better  with 
Apples  than  most  growers;  and  yet  I  judge  that 
half  my  Apples  were  of  no  use  to  me.  Many  of 
them  sold  in  this  City  for  $1  per  barrel,  including  the 
cask,  which  cost  me  40  cents ;  and,  when  you  have 
added  the  cost  of  transportation,  you  can  guess  that 


EXCHANGE    AND    DISTRIBUTION.  299 

I  had  no  surplus,  after  paying  men  $1.50  per  day  for 
picking  and  barreling  them.  I  sold  all  I  could  to 
vinegar-makers  at  fifty  cents  per  bushel  for  cider- 
apples — the  casks  being  returned.  But  they  could 
not  take  all  I  wished  to  sell  them,  there  being  so 
many  sellers  pressing  to  get  rid  of  their  windfalls  be- 
fore they  rotted  on  their  hands  that  even  this  market 
was  glutted.  That  it  was  much  worse  for  the  farmer 
a  dozen  miles  from  a  railroad  and  a  hundred  from 
the  nearest  city,  none  can  doubt.  I  have  heard  that, 
in  parts  of  Connecticut,  cider  was  sold  for  fifty^ents 
per  barrel  to  whoever  would  furnish  casks,  and  that 
their  size  was  hardly  considered.  Manifestly,  this 
left  nothing  for  the  apples. 

If  Apples  could  have  been  daily  supplied  to  our 
poorer  citizens  in  such  quantities  as  they  could  con- 
veniently take,  at  from  fifty  to  seventy-five  cents  per 
bushel,  according  to  quality  and  comeliness,  I  am 
confident  that  this  City  and  its  suburbs  would  have 
taken  Two  or  Three  Millions  of  bushels  more  than 
they  have  done ;  and  the  same  is  true  of  other  cities. 
But  the  poor  rarely  buy  a  barrel  of  Apples  at  once ; 
and  they  have  been  required  to  pay  as  much  for  half 
a  peck  as  I  could  get  for  a  bushel  just  like  them.  In 
other  words :  the  hucksters  and  middlemen  set  so 
high  a  price  on  their  respective  services  in  dividing 
up  a  barrel  of  Apples  and  conveying  them  from  the 
rural  producer  to  the  urban  consumer  that  a  large 
portion  of  the  farmer's  apples  must  rot  on  his  hands 
or  be  sold  by  him  for  less  than  the  cost  of  harvesting, 


300  WHAT   I    KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

while  the  poor  of  the  cities  find  them  too  dear  to  be 
freely  eaten. 

Nor  are  Apples  singular  in  this  respect.  I  would 
like  to  grow  a  thousand  bushels  of  English  (round) 
and  French  or  Swede  Turnips  per  annum  if  I  could 
be  sure  of  getting  $1  per  barrel  for  them  delivered 
at  the  railroad.  If  the  poor  of  this  City  could  buy 
such  Turnips  throughout  their  season  by  the  half 
peck  at  the  rate  of  $2  per  barrel,  I  believe  they  would 
buy  and  eat  many  more  than  they  do.  But  they  are 
usuatfy  asked  twenty-five  cents  per  half  peck,  which 
is  at  the  rate  of  $5  per  barrel ;  and  at  this  rate  they 
hold  them  too  dear  for  every-day  use.  So  the  Tur- 
nips are  not  grown,  or  the  cattle  are  invited  to  clear 
them  off  before  they  rot  and  become  worthless  and  a 
nuisance. 

Quite  often,  a  green  youth  undertakes  to  get  rich 
by  farming  near  some  great  city.  He  has  heard  and 
believes  that  Cabbages  bring  from  $5  to  $8  and  even 
$10  per  hundred,  Squashes  from  $10  to  $25  per  hun- 
dred, Watermelons  from  $20  to  $50,  and  so  on.  He 
has  made  his  calculations  on  this  basis,  and  sanguinely 
expects  to  make  money  rapidly.  But  his  products, 
in  the  first  place,  fall  short  of  his  estimates ;  they  are 
not  ready  for  market  so  soon  as  he  expected  they 
would  be ;  and,  when  at  length  they  are  ready,  every 
one  else  seems  to  have  rushed  in  ahead  of  him.  The 
market  is  glutted  ;  no  one  seems  to  want  his  "  truck" 
at  any  figure ;  he  sells  it  for  a  song,  and  quits  farm- 
ing disgusted  and  bankrupt.  Maybe,  his  stuff  would 


EXCHANGE   AND   DISTRIBUTION.  301 

have  sold  much  better  next  week  or  the  week  after ; 
but  he  could  not  afford  to  bring  it  to  market  and  take 
it  back  day  after  day,  on  the  chance  that  the  demand 
for  it  would  improve  by-and-by.  I  judge  that  more 
young  men  have  on  this  account  turned  their  backs 
on  farming,  after  a  brief  trial,  than  on  any  other. 
They  might  have  borne  up  against  the  shortness  of 
their  crops,  hoping  for  better  luck  next  time ;  but 
the  necessity  for  selling  them  for  a  price  that  would 
not  have  reimbursed  their  cost,  had  they  been  ever  so 
luxuriant,  utterly  disheartens  and  alienates  them. 

I  preach  no  crusade  against  hucksters  and  middle- 
men. I  hold  them,  in  the  actual  state  of  things, 
benefactors  to  both  producers  and  consumers.  In  so 
far  as  they  deal  honestly  and  meet  promptly  their 
obligations,  they  deserve  commendation  rather  than 
reproach.  "What  I  urge  is,  that  more  economical  and 
efficient  machinery  of  exchange  and  distribution 
ought  to  be  devised  and  set  at  work — machinery  that 
would  do  all  that  is  required  at  a  moderate,  reason- 
able cost. 

I  would  like  to  see  one  of  our  solvent,  well-man- 
aged Railroads  advertise  that  it  would  henceforth  buy 
at  any  of  its  stations  all  the  farmers'  produce  that 
might  be  offered,  and  pay  the  highest  prices  that  the 
state  of  the  markets  would  justify.  Let  its  agents 
purchase  whatever  came  along — a  basket  of  eggs,  a 
coop  of  chickens,  a  barrel  of  apples,  a  sack  of  beans, 
a  pail  of  currants — anything  that  could  be  sold  in 
the  city  to  which  it  runs,  and  which  would  conduce 


302  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

to  human  sustenance  or  comfort.  Its  object  should 
be  Freight — the  rapid  and  vast  increase  of  its  trans- 
portations, not  extra  profit  on  the  articles  transported. 
But  let  its  agents  be  ready  to  buy  at  fair  prices  what- 
ever was  offered,  paying  cash  down,  and  pushing 
everything  purchased  directly  into  market,  so  as  to 
have  the  money  back  to  buy  more  with  directly.  The 
Railroad  Company,  thus  owning  nearly  everything 
edible  it  brought  into  market,  would  buy  and  sell  at 
uniform  prices,  and  not  bid  against  itself,  as  a  crowd 
of  hucksters  and  middlemen  will  often  do.  I  am 
confident  that  a  Railroad  that  would  inaugurate  this 
system  on  a  right  basis,  saying  to  every  farmer  living 
near  it,  "  Grow  whatever  your  soil  is  best  adapted  to, 
and  bring  it  to  our  station :  there,  you  shall  have  cash 
down  for  it,  at  the  highest  price  we  can  afford  to 
give,"  would  rapidly  double  and  quadruple  its 
freights,  and  would  thus  build  up  a  business  which 
has  no  parallel  under  the  present  system. 

It  is  urged,  in  opposition  to  this  proposal,  that  a 
Railroad  so  managed  would  monopolize  markets,  and 
deal  on  its  own  terms  with  the  producer  and  consum- 
er. If  there  were  but  one  railroad  entering  a  great 
city,  and  no  other  mode  of  reaching  it,  this  objection 
would  be  plausible,  but  not  in  the  actual  case.  Who- 
ever chose  would  be  at  liberty  to  start  an  opposition, 
and  to  use  the  railroad  or  dispense  with  it  as  he 
found  advisable. 


II. 


WINTER  WORK. 

dearth  of  employment  in  "Winter  for  farm  la- 
borers is  a  great  and  growing  evil.  Thousands,  be- 
ing dismissed  from  work  on  the  farms  in  November, 
drift  away  to  some  city,  under  a  vague,  mistaken  im- 
pression that  there  must  be  work  at  some  rate  where 
so  much  is  being  done  and  so  many  require  service, 
and  squander  their  means  and  damage  their  morals  in 
fruitless  quest  of  what  is  not  there  to  be  had.  "When 
Spring  at  length  arrives,  they  sneak  back  to  the  rural 
districts,  ragged,  penniless,  debauched,  often  diseased, 
and  every  way  deteriorated,  by  their  "Winter  plunge. 
For  their  sakes  not  only,  but  for  the  sakes  also  of 
those  who  will  employ  and  those  who  must  work 
with  them  hereafter,  this  drifting  to  the  cities  should 
be  stopped. 

In  its.  present  magnitude,  it  is  a  very  modern  evil. 
Far  within  my  recollection,  there  was  timber  to  cut 
and  haul  to  the  saw-mill,  wood  to  cut,  draw,  and  pre- 
pare for  the  year's  fuel,  with  forest-land  to  be  cleared 
and  fitted  for  future  cultivation,  even  in  New-Eng- 

(303) 


304  WHAT   1   KNOW   OF   FAKMING. 

land.  Those  who  chose  to  work  with  ax  or  team 
were  seldom  idle  in  Winter.  Now,  there  is  little 
timber  to  cut,  little  land  to  clear,  and  coal  is  rapidly 
supplanting  wood  as  fuel.  So  a  larger  and  larger 
number  of  farm  laborers  is  annually  turned  off  when 
the  ground  freezes  to  live  as  they  may  for  the  next 
three  or  four  months. 

I  recognize  the  right  of  the  farmer,  who  has  given 
twelve  or  more  hours  per  day  to  the  tillage  of  his 
acres  and  the  saving  of  his  crops  throughout  the 
genial  months,  to  take  the  world  more  easily  in  Win- 
ter. He  should  now  have  leisure  to  return  visits,  to 
post  and  balance  his  books,  and  to  improve  his  mind 
by  study  and  reflection.  Having  worked  hard  when 
he  must,  he  ought  to  rest  and  recuperate  when  he 
can.  But  he  gravely  errs  who  supposes  that,  the 
ground  being  frozen,  there  is  no  longer  work  to  be 
done  on  the  farm  until  the  ground  is  fit  to  plow  a- 
gain.  On  the  contrary,  he  who  realizes  that  the  far- 
mer is  a  manufacturer  of  food  and  fibrous  substances 
from  raw  materials  of  far  inferior  value  must  see 
that,  so  soon  as  one  harvest  has  been  secured,  the 
cultivator  should  devote  his  attention  to  the  collec- 
tion and  utilization  of  the  elements  wherefrom  a  larger 
crop  may  be  obtained  from  the  same  acres  next  season. 

And  first  as  to  Muck.  No  one  who  has  not  valued 
and  sought  it  is  likely  to  know  how  generally  abun- 
dant and  accessible  this  material  is.  I  have  found  it 
in  inexhaustible  supply  on  the  land  of  a  pretty  good 
cultivator  who,  after  working  a  fair  farm  ten  years, 


WINTER   WORK.  305 

sold  it  because  (as  he  supposed)  it  was  destitute  of 
this  basis  of  extensive  fertilization.  "  Seek,  and  ye 
shall  find,"  implies  that  those  who  do  not  seek  will 
rarely  find ;  and  such  is  the  fact.  Where  rock 
abounds,  Muck  is  rarely  wanting.  It  covers  many 
thousand  acres  of  Jersey  sands,  where  rock  is  un- 
known ;  but  show  me  a  region  ridged  or  ribbed  with 
rock,  and  I  shall  confidently  expect  to  find  Muck  on 
it,  though  none  has  been  known  or  supposed  to  exist 
there.  And  he  who  either  has  or  can  buy  a  bed  of 
Muck  within  half  a  mile  of  his  barn,  his  sty,  his  hen- 
house, may  dig  and  draw  from  it  all  Winter  with  a 
moral  certainty  that  it  will  generously  reward  his  out- 
lay. Begin  as  soon  after  haying  as  you  can  spare  the 
time,  and  cut  an  outlet  so  deep  that  you  may  there- 
after work  dryshod  ;  thenceforth,  dig  and  pile  on  the 
nearest  accessible  spot  of  dry  ground,  to  be  drawn 
away  to  the  barn-yard  and  out-houses  as  opportunity 
presents  itself.  But,  even  though  you  have  done 
nothing  till  the  ground  freezes,  do  not  say  it  is  now 
too  late,  but  set  to  work.  You  can  often  team  in 
Winter  where  you  could  not  at  any  other  season ; 
and,  in  digging  Muck  from  a  swamp  or  bog  well  fro- 
zen over,  you  are  not  apt  to  be  troubled  with  water. 
Draw  all  you  can  ;  but  dig  much  more  ;  for  no  mon- 
ey at  lawful  interest  pays  so  well  as  Muck  left  to  dry 
and  cure  for  months  before  you  draw  it.  I  think  I 
do  not  over-estimate  the  average  value  of  a  cubic  yard 
of  Muck,  well  cured  and  mixed  with  warmer  fertili- 
zers before  application  to  the  soil,  at  one  dollar ;  and 


306  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

I  think  there  are  few  farmers  in  the  Old  Thirteen 
States  who  cannot  obtain  it  for  less  than  that. 

Where  Muck  is  not  to  be  had,  I  believe  the  tiller 
of  a  sandy  or  gravelly  farm  who  can  get  access  to  a 
bed  or  bank  of  clay  may  profitably  dig  and  draw  this, 
to  be  used  as  he  would  use  Muck  if  he  had  it,  and 
even  for  direct  application  to  the  soil.  I  do  not  think 
this  method  the  most  advisable ;  -yet  I  feel  sure  that 
clay  spread  over  a  sandy  or  gravelly  field  that  has 
been  laid  down  to  grass  is  worth  fifty  cents  per  cu- 
bic yard  wherever  Hay  is  worth  $12  per  tun ;  but  I 
would  wish  to  apply  it  not  later  than  December. 

He  who  has  fit  places  of  deposit  should  draw  all  his 
Lime,  Plaster,  and  other  commercial  fertilizers,  in 
Winter,  so  as  to  be  ready  for  use  when  required. 
Mix  your  Lime  while  fresh  from  the  kiln  with  Muck, 
at  the  rate  of  a  bushel  of  the  former  to  a  cubic  yard 
of  the  latter,  and  the  Muck  will  be  ready  for  use  far 
sooner  than  it  otherwise  would  be.  Be  careful  not 
to  mix  Lime  with  animal  manures  in  any  case,  since 
it  expels  Ammonia,  whereas  the  sulphur  of  Plaster 
combines  with  that  volatile  element  and  fixes  it. 
There  are  some  farmers  who  do,  but  twenty  times  as 
many  who  do  not,  use  Plaster  enough  about  their  sta- 
bles and  pig-pens.  They  ought  to  realize  that  a  bad 
smell  implies  a  waste  of  Ammonia,  which  a  farmer, 
unless  very  rich,  can  hardly  afford. 

Fences  should  all  be  scrutinized  as  Winter  goes  off, 
and  put  into  thorough  condition  for  next  season's  ser- 
vice. 


WINTER   WOKK.  807 

Fruit-trees  should  be  relieved  of  all  dead  or  dying 
branches,  all  suckers,  and  cut  back  where  towering 
too  high,  or  spreading  too  wide.  It  may  be  better 
for  the  trees  to  do  all  pruning  in  May  or  June  ;  but 
the  farmer  who  defers  it  to  that  season  is  very  likely 
to  be  hurried  into  postponing  it  to  another  year — and 
another. 

There  is  scarcely  a  forest  of  second  or  later  growth 
which  would  not  pay  for  thinning  and  trimming,  if 
well  done.  That  which  is  cut  out  may  be  turned  to 
good  account  as  bean-poles,  pea-brush,  Summer  fuel, 
etc.,  while  that  which  is  left  will  grow  faster,  taller, 
and  more  shapely,  to  reward  you  doubly  for  your 
pains. 

— These  are  but  suggestions.  Any  farmer  can  add 
to  or  improve  upon  them  if  he  will  give  an  hour's 
thought  to  the  subject.  The  best  laborers  can  be 
hired  for  a  full  year  at  a  price  not  very  much  exceed- 
ing that  which  will  secure  their  services  for  eight  or 
nine  months.  In  the  interest  alike  of  good  crops  and 
good  morals,  I  urge  every  one  who  can  to  resolve 
that  he  will  henceforth  hire  by  the  year,  or  in  some 
way  manage  to  employ  his  laborers  in  Winter  as  well 
as  in  Summer. 


LIL 


SUMMING    UP. 


IN  the  foregoing  essays,  I  have  set  forth,  as  clearly 
as  I  could,  the  facts  within  my  knowledge  which 
seem  calculated  to  cast  light  upon  the  farmer's  voca- 
tion, and  the  principles  or  rules  of  action  which  they 
have  suggested  to  my  mind.  I  have  been  careful 
not  to  throw  any  false,  delusive  halo  over  this  indis- 
pensable calling,  and  by  no  means  to  induce  the  be- 
lief that  the  farmer's  lot  is  necessarily  and  uniformly 
a  happy  one.  I  know  that  his  is  not  the  royal  road 
to  rapid  acquisition,  and  that  few  men  are  likely  to 
amass  great  wealth  by  quietly  tilling  the  soil.  I 
know,  moreover,  that  what  passes  for  farming  among 
us  is  not  so  noble,  so  intellectual,  so  attractive,  a  pur- 
suit as  it  might  and  should  be — that  most  farmers 
might  farm  better  and  live  to  better  purpose  than 
they  do.  Of  all  the  false  teaching,  I  most  condemn 
that  which  flatters  farmers  as  though  they  were  demi- 
gods and  their  calling  the  grandest  and  the  happiest 
ever  followed  by  mortals,  when  the  hearer,  unless 
very  green,  must  feel  that  the  speaker  does  n't  be- 
lieve one  word  of  all  he  utters ;  for,  if  he  did,  he 
(308) 


SUMMING    UP.  309 

would  be  farming,  instead  of  living  by  some  profes- 
sion, and  talking  as  though  his  auditors  did  not  kno\r 
wheat  from  chaff.  I  regard  the  Agriculture  of  this 
country  as  very  far  below  the  standard  which-  it 
should  ere  this  have  reached :  I  hold  that  the  great 
mass  of  our  cultivators  might  and  should  farm  better 
than  they  do,  and  that  better  farming  would  render 
their  sons  better  citizens  and  better  men.  If  a  single 
line  of  this  little  work  should  seem  calculated  to  ca- 
jole its  readers  into  self-complacency  rather  than  in- 
struct them,  I  beg  them  to  believe  that  their  impres- 
sion wrongs  my  purpose. 

I  am  fully  aware  that  others  have  treated  my 
theme  with  fuller  knowledge  and  far  greater  ability 
than  I  brought  to  its  discussion.  "  Then  why  not 
leave  them  the  field  ?"  Simply  because,  when  all 
have  written  who  can  elucidate  my  theme,  at  least 
three-fourths  of  those  who  ought  to  study  and  ponder 
it  will  not  have  read  any  treatise  whatever  upon 
Agriculture — will  hardly  have  yet  regarded  it  as  a 
theme  whereon  books  should  be  written  and  read. 
And,  since  there  may  be  some  who  will  read  this 
treatise  for  its  writer's  sake — will  read  it  when  they 
could  not  be  persuaded  to  do  like  honor  to  a  more 
elaborate  and  erudite  work — I  have  written  in  the 
hope  of  arousing  in  some  breasts  a  spirit  of  inquiry 
with  regard  to  Agriculture  as  an  art  based  on  Science 
— a  spirit  which,  having  been  awakened,  will  not 
fall  again  into  torpor,  but  which  will  lead  on  to  the 
perusal  and  study  of  profounder  and  better  books. 


310  WHAT   I   KNOW    OF   FARMING. 

In  the  foregoing  essays,  I  have  sought  to  establish 
the  following  propositions : 

1.  That  good  farming  is  and  must  ever  be  a  paying 
business,  subject,  like  all  others,  to  mischances  and 
pull-backs,  and  to  the  general  law  that  the  struggle 
up  from  nothing  to  something   is    ever  an  arduous 
and  almost  always  a  slow  process.     In  the  few  in- 
stances  where   wealth   and   distinction   have   been 
swiftly  won,  they  have  rarely  proved  abiding.    There 
are   pursuits  wherein   success   is    more    envied  and 
dazzling   than    in   Agriculture ;    but  there  is  none 
wherein  efficiency  and  frugality  are  more  certain  to 
secure  comfort  and  competence. 

2.  Though  the    poor  man  must  often  go  slowly, 
where  wealth  may  attain  perfection  at  a  bound,  and 
though  he  may  sometimes  seem  compelled   to  till 
fields  not  half  so  amply  fertilized  as  they  should  be, 
it  is  nevertheless  inflexibly  true  that  bounteous  crops 
are  grown  at  a  profit,  while  half  and  quarter  crops 
are  produced  at  a  loss.     A  rich  man  may  afford  to 
grow  poor  crops,  because  he  can  afford  to  lose  by  his 
year's  farming,  while   the   poor   man    cannot.      He 
ought,  therefore,  to  till  no  more  acres  than  he  can 
bring  into  good  condition — to  sow  no  seed,  plow  no 
field,  where  he  is  not  justified  in  expecting  a  good 
crop.      Better  five  acres  amply  fertilized  and  thor- 
oughly tilled  than  twenty  acres  which  can  at  best  make 
but  a  meager  return,  and  which  a  dry  or  a  wet  sea- 
son must  doom  to  partial  if  not  absolute  failure. 

3.  In  choosing  a  location,  the  farmer  should  resolve 


SUMMING   UP.  311 

to  choose  once  for  all.  Roaming  from  State  to  State, 
from  section  to  section,  is  a  sad  and  far  too  common 
mistake.  Not  merely  is  it  true  that  "  The  rolling 
stone  gathers  no  moss,"  but  the  farmer  who  wanders 
from  place  to  place  never  acquires  that  intimate 
knowledge  of  soil  and  climate  which  is  essential  to 
excellence  in  his  vocation.  He  cannot  read  the 
clouds  and  learn  when  to  expect  rain,  when  he  may 
look  for  days  of  sunshine,  as  he  could  if  he  had  lived 
twenty  years  on  the  same  place.  Choose  your  home 
in  the  East,  the  South,  the  Center,  the  West,  if  you 
will  (and  each  section  has  its  peculiar  advantages) ; 
but  choose  once  for  all,  and,  having  chosen,  regard 
that  choice  as  final. 

4.  Our  young  men  are  apt  to  plunge  into  responsi- 
bilities too  hastily.  They  buy  farms  while  they  lack 
at  once  experience  and  means,  incur  losses  and  debts 
by  consequent  miscalculations,  and  drag  through  life 
a  weary  load,  which  sours  them  against  their  pursuit, 
when  the  fault  is  entirely  their  own.  No  youth 
should  undertake  to  manage  a  farm  until  after  several 
years  of  training  for  that  task  under  the  eye  of  a 
capable  master  of  the  art  of  tilling  the  soil.  If  he 
has  enjoyed  the  requisite  advantages  on  his  father's 
homestead,  he  may  possibly  be  qualified  to  manage 
a  farm  at  twenty-one ;  but  there  are  few  who  might 
not  profitably  wait  and  learn,  in  the  pay  of  some  suc- 
cessful cultivator,  for  several  years  longer ;  while  I 
cannot  recall  an  instance  of  a  youth  rushing  out  of 
school  or  a  city  counting-house  to  show  old  farmers 


312  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

how  their  work  ought  to  be  done,  that  did  not  result 
in  disaster.  It  is  very  well  to  know  what  Science 
teaches  with  regard  to  farming;  but  no  man  was 
ever  a  thoroughly  good  farmer  who  had  not  spent 
some  years  in  actual  contact  with  the  soil. 

5.  While  every  one  says  of  his  neighbor,  "He 
farms  too  much  land,"  the  greed  of  acquisition  does 
not  seem  at  all  chastened.     Men  stagger  under  loads 
of  debt  to-day,  who  might  relieve  themselves  by 
selling   off  so  much  of  their  land    as   they  cannot 
profitably  use  ;  but  every  one  seems  intent  on  hold- 
ing all  he  can,  as  if  in  expectation  of  a  great  advance 
in  its  market  value.     And  yet  you  can  buy  farms  in 
every  old  State  in  the  Union  as  cheaply  per  acre  as 
they  could  have  been  bought  in  like  condition  sixty 
years  ago;  and  I  doubt   their  selling  higher   sixty 
years  hence  than  they  do  now.     No  doubt,  there  are 
lands,  in  the  vicinage  of  growing  cities  or  villages, 
that  have  greatly  advanced  in  value ;  but  these  are 
exceptions :  and  I  counsel  every  young  farmer,  every 
poor  farmer,  to  buy  no  more  land  than  he  can  culti- 
vate thoroughly,  save  such  as  he  needs  for  timber. 
Never  fear  that  there  will  not  be  more  land  for  sale 
when  you  shall  have  the  money  wherewith  to  buy  it ; 
but  shun  debt  as  you  would  the  plague,  and  prefer 
forty  acres  all  your  own  to  a  square  mile  heavily 
mortgaged.     I  never  lifted  a  mill-stone ;  but  I  have 
undertaken  to  carry  debts,  and  they  are  fearfully 
heavy. 

6.  I  know  that  most  American  farms  east  of  the 


SUMMING   UP.  313 

Roanoke  and  tlie  Wabash  have  too  many  fields  and 
fences,  and  that  the  too  prevalent  custom  of  allowing 
cattle  to  prowl  over  meadow,  tillage  and  forest,  from 
September  to  May,  picking  up  a  precarious  and  in- 
adequate subsistence  by  browsing  and  foraging  at 
large,  is  slovenly,  unthrifty,  and  hardly  consistent 
with  the  requirements  of  good  neighborhood.  It  is 
at  best  a  miseducation  of  your  cattle  into  lawless 
habits.  I  do  not  know  just  where  and  when  all  pas- 
turing becomes  wasteful  and  improvident ;  but  I  do 
know  that  pasturing  fosters  thistles,  briers,  and  every 
noxious  weed,  and  so  is  inconsistent  with  cleanly  and 
thorough  tillage.  I  know  that  the  same  acres  will 
feed  far  more  stock,  and  keep  them  in  better  condi- 
tion, if  their  food  be  cut  and  fed  to  them,  than  if  they 
are  sent  out  to  gather  it  for  themselves.  I  know  that 
the  cost  of  cutting  their  grass  and  other  fodder  with 
modern  machinery  need  not  greatly  exceed  that  of 
driving  them  to  remote  pastures  in  the  morning  and 
hunting  them  up  at  nightfall.  I  know  that  penning 
them  ten  hours  of  each  twenty-four  in  a  filthy  yard, 
where  they  have  neither  food  nor  drink,  is  unwise ; 
and  I  feel  confident  that  it  is  already  high  time, 
wherever  good  grass-land  is  worth  $100  per  acre,  to 
limit  pasturage  to  one  small  field,  as  near  the  center 
of  the  farm  as  may  be,  wherein  shade  and  good 
water  abound,  into  which  green  rye,  clover,  timothy, 
oats,  sowed  corn,  stalks,  etc.,  etc.,  may  successively 
be  thrown  from  every  side,  and  where  shelter  from  a 
cold,  driving  storm,  is  provided ;  and  that,  if  cows 
U 


314  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING.^ 

could  be  milked  here  and  left  through  night  as  well 
as  day,  it  would  be  found  good  economy. 

7.  I  know  that  most  of  us  are  slashing  down  our 
trees  most  iinprovidently,  and  thus  compelling  our 
children  to  buy  timber  at  thrice  the  cost  at  which  we 
might  and  should  have  grown  it.  I  know  that  it  is 
wasteful  to  let  White  Birch,  Hemlock,  Scrub  Oak, 
Pitch  Pino,  Dogwood,  etc.,  start  up  and  grow  on 
lands  which  might  be  cheaply  sown  with  the  seeds  of 
Locust,  White  Oak,  Hickory,  Sugar  Maple,  Chestnut, 
Black  Walnut,  and  White  Pine.  I  know  that  no 
farm  in  a  settled  region  is  so  large  that  its  owner  can 
really  afford  to  surrender  a  considerable  portion  of  it 
to  growing  indifferent  cord-wood  when  it  would  as 
freely  grow  choice  timber  if  seeded  therefor ;  and  I 
feel  sure  that  there  are  few  farms  so  small  that  a  por- 
tion of  each  might  not  be  profitably  devoted  to  the 
growing  of  valuable  trees.  I  know  that  the  common 
presumption  that  land  so  devoted  will  yield  no  re- 
turn for  a  life-time  is  wrong — know  that,  if  thickly 
and  properly  seeded,  it  will  begin  to  yield  bean-poles, 
hoop-poles,  etc.,  the  fifth  or  sixth  year  from  planting, 
and  thenceforth  will  yield  more  and  more  abundant- 
ly forever.  I  know  that  good  timber,  in  any  well- 
peopled  region,  should  not  be  cut  off,  but  cut  out— 
thinned  judiciously  but  moderately  and  trimmed  up, 
so  that  it  shall  grow  tall  and  run  to  trunk  instead  of 
branches;  and  I  know  that  there  are  all  about  us 
millions  of  acres  of  rocky  crests  and  acclivities,  steep 
ravines  and  sterile  sands,  that  ought  to  be  seeded  to 


SUMMING   UP.  315 

timber  forthwith,  kept  clear  of  cattle,  and  devoted  to 
tree-growing  evermore. 

8.  I  do  not  know  that  all  lands  may  be  profitably 
imderdrained.     Wooded  uplands,  I  know,  could  not 
be.     Fields  which  slope  considerably,  and  so  regu- 
larly that  water  never  stagnates  upon  or  near  their 
surface,  do  very  well  without.     Light,  leachy  sands, 
like  those  of  Long  Island,  Southern  Jersey,  Eastern 
Maryland,  and  the  Carolinas,  seem  to  do  fairly  with- 
out.     Yet  my  conviction  is  strong  that  nearly  all 
land  which  is  to  ~be  persistently  cultivated  will  in 
time  be  underdrained.     I  would  urge  no  farmer  to 
plunge  up  to  his  neck  into  debt  in  order  to  under- 
draln  his  farm.     But  I  would  press  every  one  who 
has  no  experience  on  this  head  to  select  his  wettest 
field,  or  the  wettest  part  of  such  field,  and,  having 
carefully  read  and  digested  "VVaring's,  French's,  or 
some  other  approved  work  on  the  subject,  procure 
tile  and  proceed  next  Fall  to  drain  that  field  or  part 
of  a  field   thoroughly,   taking  especial  precautions 
against  back-water,  and  watch  the  eifect  until  satis- 
fied that  it  will  or  will  not  pay  to  drain  further.     1 
think  few  have  drained  one  acre  thoroughly,  and  at 
no  unnecessary  cost,  without  being  impelled  by  the 
result  to  drain  more  and  faster  until  they  had  tiled  at 
least  half  their  respective  farms. 

9.  As  to  Irrigation,  I  doubt  that  there  is  a  farm  in 
the  United  States  where  something  might  not  be 
profitably  done  forthwith  to  secure  advantage  from 
the   artificial    retention   and   application    of   water. 


310  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FAKMING. 

Wherever  a  brook  or  runnel  crosses  or  skirts  a  farm, 
the  question — "  Can  the  water  here  running  uselessly 
by  be  retained,  and  in  due  season  equably  diffused 
over  some  portion  of  this  land  ? " — at  once  presents 
itself.  One  who  has  never  looked  with  this  view  will 
be  astonished  at  the  facility  with  which  some  acres 
of  nearly  every  farm  may  be  irrigated.  Often,  a 
dam  that  need  not  cost  $20  will  suffice  to  hold  back 
ten  thousand  barrels  of  water,  so  that  it  may  be  led 
off  along  the  upper  edge  of  a  slope  or  glade,  falling 
off  just  enough  to  maintain  a  gentle,  steady  current, 
and  so  providing  for  the  application  of  tsvo  or  three 
inches  of  water  to  several  acres  of  tillage  or  grass  just 
when  the  exigencies  of  crop  and  season  most  urgently 
require  such  irrigation.  Any  farmer  east  of  the 
Hudson  can  tell  where  such  an  application  would 
have  doubled  the  crop  of  1870,  and  precluded  the 
hard  necessity  of  selling  or  killing  cattle  not  easily 
replaced. 

Of  course,  this  is  but  a  rude  beginning.  In  time, 
we  shall  dam  very  considerable  streams  mainly  to 
this  end,  and  irrigate  hundreds  and  thousands  of  acres 
from  a  single  pond  or  reservoir.  Wells  will  be  sunk 
on  plains  and  gentle  swells  now  comparatively  arid 
and  sterile,  and  wind  or  steam  employed  to  raise 
water  into  reservoirs  whence  wide  areas  of  surround- 
ing or  subjacent  land  will  be  refreshed  at  the  critical 
moment,  and  thus  rendered  bounteously  productive. 
On  the  vast,  bleajc,  treeless  Plains  of  the  wild  West, 
even  Artesian  wells  will  be  sunk  for  this  purpose ;  and 


SUMMING   UP.  317 

the  water  thus  obtained  will  prove  a  source  of  fer- 
tility as  well  as  refreshment,  enriching  the  soil  by 
the  minerals  which  it  holds  in  solution,  and  insuring 
bounteous  crops  from  wide  stretches  of  now  barren 
and  worthless  desert.  Immigration  will  yet  thickly 
dot  the  great  Sahara  with  oases  of  verdure  and  plenty ; 
but  it  will,  long  ere  that,  have  covered  the  valleys 
of  our  Great  Basin  and  those  which  skirt  the  af- 
fluents of  the  savage  and  desolate  Colorado  with  a 
beauty  and  thrift  surpassing  the  dreams  of  poets. 
And  yet,  its  easiest  and  readiest  triumphs  are  to  be 
won  right  here — in  the  valleys  of  the  Connecticut, 
the  Hudson,  the  Susquehanna,  and  the  Potomac. 

10.  As  to  Commercial  Fertilizers,  I  think  I  hare 
been  well  paid  for  the  application  of  Gypsum  (Plaster 
of  Paris)  to  my  upland  grass  at  the  rate  of  one  bushel 
per  acre  per  annum,  while  my  tillage  has  been  sup- 
plied with  it  by  dusting  my  stables  with  it  after  each 
cleaning,  and  so  applying  it  mingled  with  barn-yard 
manures.  Lime  (unslaked)  from  burned  oyster-shells, 
costing  me  from  25  to  30  cents  per  bushel  delivered, 
I  have  applied  liberally,  and  I  judge,  with  profit. 
Bones,  ground,  (the  finer  the  better)  I  have  largely 
and  I  think  advantageously  used ;  but  my  lar.d  had 
been  mainly  pastured  for  nearly  two  centuries  before 
I  bought  it, 'and  thus  continually  drained  of  Phos- 
phates, yet  never  replenished  :  so  my  experience  does 
not  prove  that  the  farmers  of  newer  lands  ought  to 
buy  bones,  though  I  advise  them  to  apply  all  they 
can  save  or  pick  up  at  small  cost.  Pound  them  very 


318  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF   FARMING. 

fine  with  a  beetle  or  ax-head  on  a  flat  stone,  and  give 
them  to  your  fowls :  if  they  refuse  a  part  of  them, 
your  soil  will  prove  less  dainty.  I  am  not  sure  that 
it  pays  to  buy  any  manufactured  Phosphate  when 
you  can  get  Raw  Bone ;  though  I  doubt  not  that,  for 
instant  effect,  the  Phosphate  is  far  superior.  As  to 
Guano,  it  has  not  paid  me;  but  that  may  be  the 
fault  of  careless  or  unskillful  application.  I  judge 
that  any  one  who  has  to  deal  with  sterile  sands 
that  will  not  bring  Clover,  may  wisely  apply  400 
pounds  of  Guano  per  acre,  provided  he  has  noth- 
ing else  that  will  answer  the  purpose.  After  he 
has  produced  one  good  stand  of  Clover,  I  doubt 
that  he  can  afford  to  buy  more  Guano,  unless 
he  can  apply  it  to  better  purpose  than  I  have  yet 
done. 

I  have  a  strong  impression  that  most  farmers  can 
do  better  at  making  and  saving  fertilizei's  than  by 
buying  them.  Lime  and  Sulphur  (Gypsum),  if  your 
soil  lacks  them,  you  must  buy ;  but  a  good  farmer 
who  keeps  even  a  span  of  horses,  three  or  four  cows, 
as  many  pigs,  and  a  score  of  fowls,  can  make  for  $100 
fertilizers  which  I  would  rather  have  than  two  tuns 
of  Guano,  costing  him  $180  to  $200.  If  he  has  a 
patch  of  bog  or  a  miry  pond  on  his  farm — any  place 
where  frogs  will  live — he  can  dig  thence,  in  the 
dryest  time  next  Fall,  two  or  three  hundred  loads  of 
Muck,  which,  having  been  left  to  dry  on  the  nearest 
high  ground  till  November  or  later,  and  then  drawn 
up  and  dumped  into  his  barn-yard,  pig-pen,  and 


SUMMING    UP.  319 

fowl-house,  will  be  ready  to  come  out  next  Spring  in 
season  for  corn-planting,  and,  being  liberally  applied, 
will  do  as  much  for  bis  crop  as  two  tons  of  Guano 
would,  and  will  strengthen  his  land  far  more.  If 
he  has  no  Muck,  and  no  neighbor  who  can  spare  it 
as  well  as  not,  let  him  at  midsummer  cut  all  the 
weeds  growing  on  and  around  his  farm,  and  in  the 
Fall  gather  all  the  leaves  that  can  be  impounded, 
using  these  as  litter  for  his  cattle  and  beds  for  his 
pigs,  and  he  will  be  agreeably  surprised  at  the  bulk 
of  his  heap  next  Spring. 

I  am  ail  intense  believer  in  Home  Production. 
We  send  ten  thousand  miles  for  Guano,  and  suf- 
fer the  equally  valuable  excretions  of  our  cities  to 
run  to  waste  in  rivers  and  bays,  poisoning  or  driving 
away  the  fish,  and  filling  the  air  with  stench  and 
pestilence.  No  farmer  ever  yet  intelligently  tried  to 
enrich  his  land  and  was  defeated  by  lack  of  material. 
He  may  not  be  able  to  do  all  he  would  like  to  at 
first;  but  persistent  effort  cannot  be  baffled. 

11.  Shallow  culture  is  the  most  crying  defect  of 
our  average  farming.  Poverty  may  sometimes  excuse 
it;  but  the  excuse  is  stretched  quite  too  far.  If  a 
farmer  has  but  a  poor  span  of  horses,  or  a  light  yoke  of 
thin  steers,  he  cannot  plow  land  as  it  should  be  plow- 
ed ;  but  let  him  double  teams  with  his  neighbor,  and 
plow  alternate  days  on  either  farm  ;  or,  if  this  may 
not  be,  let  him  buy  or  borrow  a  sub-soil  plow,  and  go 
once  around  with  his  surface  plow,  then  hitch  on  to 
the  sub-scil,  and  run  another  furrow  in  the  hot- 


320  WHAT   I   KNOW   OF    FARMING. 

torn  of  the  former.  There  are  a  few  intervales  of 
rich,  mellow  soil,  deposited  by  the  inundations  of 
countless  ages,  where  shallow  culture  will  answer, 
because  the  roots  of  the  plants  run  freely  through 
fertile  earth  never  yet  disturbed  by  the  plow ;  but 
these  marked  and  meagre  exceptions  do  not  invali- 
date the  truth  that  nine-tenths  of  our  tillage  is 
neither  so  deep  nor  so  thorough  as  it  should  be.  As 
a  rule,  the  feeding- roots  of  plants  do  not  run  below 
the  bottom  of  the  furrows,  though  in  some  instances 
they  do ;  and  he  who  fancies  that  five  or  six  inches 
of  soil  will,  under  our  fervid  suns,  with  our  Summers 
often  rainless  for  weeks,  produce  as  bounteous  and  as 
sure  a  crop  as  twelve  to  eighteen  inches,  is  impervious 
to  fact  or  reason.  He  might  as  sensibly  maintain 
that  you  could  draw  as  long  and  as  heavily  against 
a  deposit  in  bank  of  $500  as  against  one  of  $1,500. 

12.  Finally,  and  as  the  sum  of  my  convictions,  we 
need  more  thought,  more  study,  more  intellect,  in- 
fused into  our  Agriculture,  with  less  blind  devotion 
to  a  routine  which,  if  ever  judicious,  has  long  since 
ceased  to  be  so.  The  tillage  which  a  pioneer,  fight- 
ing single-handed  and  all  but  empty-handed  with  a 
dense  forest  of  giant  trees,  which  he  can  do  no  better 
than  to  cut  down  and  burn,  found  indispensable 
among  their  stumps  and  roots,  is  not  adapted  to  the 
altered  circumstances  of  his  grandchildren.  If  our 
most  energetic  farmers  would  abstract  ten  hours  each 
per  week  from  their  incessant  drudgery,  and  devote 
them  to  reading  and  reflection  with  regard  to  their 


SUMMING    UP.  321 

noble  calling,  they  would  live  longer,  live  to  better 
purpose,  and  bequeath  a  better  example,  with  more 
property,  to  their  children. 


My  self-imposed  task  i^done.  I  undertook  to  tell 
What  I  Know  of  Farming  through  one  brief  essay  for 
each  week  in  1870 ;  and,  in  the  face  of  multifarious 
and  pressing  duties,  and  in  despite  of  a  severe,  pro- 
tracted illness,  the  work  has  been  prosecuted— to 
completion.  Had  I  not  kept  ahead  of  it  while  in 
health,  there  were  weeks  when  I  must  have  left  it 
unaccomplished,  as  I  was  too  ill  to  write  or  even 
stand. 

I  close  with  the  avowal  of  my  joyful  trust  that  these 
essays,  slight  and  imperfect  as  they  are,  will  incite 
thousands  of  young  farmers  to  feel  a  loftier  pride  in 
their  calling  and  take  a  livelier  interest  in  its  improve- 
ment, and  that  many  will  be  induced  by  them  to  read 
abler  and  better  works  on  Agriculture  and  the 
sciences  which  minister  to  its  efficiency  and  impel  its 
progress  toward  a  perfection  which  few  as  yet  have 
even  faintly  foreseen. 


INDEX. 


ACCOUNTS—  Aocomrro  nr  , 

chap,  xxxv,  207;  the  causes  of  pe- 
cuniary failure,  207  ;  loss  from  waste 
of  time,  207  ;  the  author  has  found 
all  successful  farmers  rigid  econ- 
omists of  time,  208;  farmers  urged 


to  keep  a  rigid  account  of  h 


rs  urge 
ow  the 

dispose  of  their  time,  208  ;  keeping 
a  diary  recommended,  208  ;  what  It 
should  contain,  209  ;  accounts  with 
neighbors,  209;  the  farmer  should 
keep  an  account  of  the  expenses  of 
liis  farm,  and  the  receipts  therefrom, 
209;  importance  of  keeping  an  ac- 
count with  the  several  fields  and 
crops,2io;  complication  and  uncer- 
tainty in  account-keeping  consid- 
ered, 210-u  ;  the  advantage  of  keep- 
ing careful  accounts,  211. 

AGRICULTURE.  See  FARMING  :  books 
on  practical,  referred  to,  30. 

ALABAMA,  50. 

ALDER,  53. 

ALKALIS,  as  fertilizers.  See  FERTIL- 
IZERS, COMMERCIAL. 

ALLEGHANY  RIDGE,  39. 

ALLKGHANIES,  the,  45,40,.  79,81,  136. 

ALPS,  75. 

ALPS,  AUSTRIAN,  75 

AMERICA,  44,  170. 

AMHERST.N.  H.,  52. 

AMMONIA,  104,306. 

AMMONOOSUC,  tho  river,  134. 

ANTELOPE,  278. 

APENNINES,  267. 

APPLE,  the,  53  118,129.  FRUIT-TREEC. 
THE  APPLE,  chap.  xxix.  139  :  fruit- 
trees  form  a  distinguishing  leature 
of  Northern  farms  and  holdings,  139; 
tinequaled  in  that  respect  else- 
where, 140;  our  country  north  of 
the  Potomac  excels,  in  its  supply  of 
tree-fruits,  all  other  portions  of  the 
earth's  surface  of  equal  area,  140; 
the  Northern  States  admirably 
adapted  to  the  apple  and  kindred 
fruit-trees,  140;  effects  of  such  adapt- 
ability, 140;  give  an  orchard  the 
northern  slope  of  a  hill  where  possi- 
ble, 141;  the  one  which  blossoms 
latest,  yields,  on  the  average,  most 
i'ruit,  141  ;  storing  Ice  to  place  un- 
der trees,  not  recommended,  141  ; 
Importance  of  drainage,  141  ;  some 
reasons  for  choosing  sloping  ground 
for  an  apple-orchard,  141  ;  the  soil 
for  such,  142  ;  preparation  of  the 
coil,  142-3  ;  treatment  and  care  of 
the  land  devotad  to  an  orchard, 
143-4  :  MORE  ABOUT  APPLE  TKEES, 


§23 


chap,  xxv,  1455  apple  trees  are 
planted  too  far  apart,  and  allowed 
to  grow  too  tall,  14^;  consequences, 
145-6 ;  trees  should  be  sot  diamond 
fashion,  146;  pruning  should  be  at- 
tended to  annually,  146;  sprouts 
valueless,  147 ;  the  demands  which 
apple-trees  make  on  the  soil  should 
be  supplied,  147  ;  apple-trees  l:i  the 
township  of  Newcastle,  Westches- 
ter,  N.  Y.,  147;  causes  of  their  un- 
productiveness, 147-8;  caterpillars 
and  their  ravages,  148;  duties  of  farm- 
ers and  fruit  growers,  149 ;  the  abun- 
dant apple-crop  of  1870,  149 ;  estab- 
lishes tne  capacity  of  our  regions  to 
bear  Apples,  149, 191,232,291,294;  the 
apple-cropofi87o,asanlllustrationof 
the  imperfect  means  of  exchanging 
farm  products,  297-8-9 ;  loss  to  con- 
sumers and  producers,  299-300. 

ARIZONA,  48. 

ARKANSAS,  State  of,  25,36;  the  river, 
73,  261 ;  the  upper  river,  274. 

ARTESIAN  WELLS,  77,  277-8,  316. 

ASHES  as  fertilizers,  108-9, 127. 128;  uso 
in  preparing  for  an  orchard,  142, 174. 
See  also  FERTILIZERS,  COMUBB- 

ATLANTIC,  the  coast,  156,  178;  sea- 
board, 220;  slope,  76, 157, 213. 
AUSTIN,  46. 

AUSTRALIA,  138,  200,  238. 
AUTUMN,  83, 97, 99, 116, 124, 173, 170..  179, 

192,  193,  202,  202. 

BABYLON,  266. 

BALSAM  FIR,  58. 

BALTIMORE,  165. 

BARLEY,  245,  265. 

BARN,  the  use  of  stono  recommended 
in  building  a,  216. 

BATAVIA  YAMS,  271. 

BATTENKILL,  75. 

BEANS,  210,  271.  296. 

BEECH,  19, 53, 60,  287. 

BEEF.  37, 118,220,  294. 

BEETS.  See  ROOTS, also  143,232, 164,  271. 

BELGIUM,  70,  238. 

BERRIES,  90. 

BIRCH,  60. 

BIRDS—  INSECTS.  BIRDS,  chap.  xsll, 
129;  birds  our  best  allies  against  in- 
sects, 129;  the  destruction  of  birds 
not  the  sole  cause  of  insect  ravages, 
130;  birds  should  be  protected  and 
kindly  treated,  132:  associations 
fhould  bo  formed  to  do  so,  132 ;  arti- 
ficial nests,  133 ;  legal  measures  to 
protect  birds,  133. 


324 


INDKX. 


BLACK  ASH,  30. 
BLACKBERRIES,  go,  158. 

BLACK  WALNUT;?!.!. 
BLACKWELL'S  ISLAND,  87. 
BLUE  RIDGE  MOUNTAINS,  81. 

BOARD  OF  WORKS  (London), 260. 
BOISSIERE,  E.  V.,DE,  253-4. 
BONES.    See  COMMHBCIAI/  FEBTELIZ- 

EE8,  also  118, 1 10, 102,317. 

FsONE-DUST,i74.  v 
BONES,  flour  of,  121. 
BONE  FLO  UR,  167. 
BONES,  raw,  317. 
BOSTON,  farm  near,  15,285. 
BOTANY,  30. 
BUCKEYE,  260. 
BUCKWHEAT,  21, 189, 191,  Sio. 
BUFFALO,  278. 
BUFFALO  GRASS,  is*. 
BURLINGTON,  N.  J.,ic6. 
BUTTER.  38, 164, 167. 
BRIDGES,  250. 
BRITISH  ISLES,  1 78, 245. 
BROCOLI.27I. 

CABBAGES, 25^,  271,  296, 3=0. 
CACHE-LA-POUDRE,  tha  rivor,  82,  262, 

CALIFORNIA,  26,  76, 80,  159,  181, 260. 

9^^P^'  &>  I65>  289  i  cre"ek>  75- 
CANALS,  105. 

CAROLINAS,  the,  166, 3I5, 

CARROTS.    See  ROOTS,  also  143, 271. 

CARSON,  the  river,  81, 83. 

CATTLE,  15;  Pasturing,  15-20;  Soiling, 
20;  treatment  of  herds  of.  In  the 
Mississippi  and  Missouri  Valleys,  20 ; 
rearing  of,  referred  to,  35,  132,  150, 

157,  210,  220,  224,  203. 

CATSKILLS,  thai 172. 

CENSUS :  the  Seventh,  150 ;  the  Eighth, 

150 ;  the,  of  1870, 286. 
CHAMPLAIN,  the,  basin,  72;  lake,  279. 
CHAPPAQUA,  62. 
CH AUTAUQU A  Co.,  N.  Y.,  287, 288. 
CHEESE,  38,  164, 167. 
CHEMISTRY,  y,,  i  19,  196,  231. 
CHERRIES.   /S'ee  FRUITS,  also  129,  139, 

CHESTER  CO.,Penn.,  no. 

CHESTNUT,54,  55,  60,  135,  136,215,314. 
See  aho,  TT.EES. 

CHEYENNE,  262. 

CHICAGO,  104. 

CHICKEN  8,295.    -Cfea  FotTi.3 

CHLORINE,  114,23=. 

CHLORIDE  OF  LIME,  izO. 

CHOLERA,  263. 

CHURCHES.  250. 

CINCINNATI,  156. 

CLI  MBYTES,  American,  for  toe  finer 
fruits,  is,6. 

CLOVER,  120, 1=3, 167, 318. 

CLUBS.   Se».  FABSCEBS'  CLUBS. 

COAL,  ico,  283. 

COLONIES,  advantage  of  settling  In, 
20:  tho  course  to  adopt  in  organiz- 
ing one,  28;  Union  Colony,  262;  its 
location,  262:  tho  City  of  Greelcy, 
its  nucleus,  262 ;  irrigating  canals  of, 
262-4 ;  fertility  of  the  soil  at,  264. 

COLONISTS,  Engliah,  171. 

COLORADO,  181,206,317;  rivor,  46. 

CONGRESS,  46. 


CON>7ECTTCUT.  27,  171,  299;  river,  104, 
279;  valley  of  the,  317. 

COMO,lake,75. 

COMMON  SCHOOLS,  196-7. 

COMMUNISM:  Differs  radically  from 
Co-operation,  248. 

CONCLUSIONS,  General,  SUMMING  UP 
CHAP.  LII,  308;  the  facts  set  forth  in 
the  essays,  308  ;  common  misrepre- 
sentations, 1508-9;  object  of  the  au- 
thor in  writing  these  essays,  309; 
the  propositions  sought  to  be  estab- 
lished therein,  310;  good  farming 
must  ever  be  a  paying  business,  310  ; 


thorough  tillage  advocated,  310;  a 
location  should  be  permanent,  310  ; 
the  too  great  haste  In  incurring  re- 


sponsibilities, 311  ;  thegreedforland, 
310;  common  abuses  in  fencing  and 
cattle-raising,  312-13;  tree-cutting 
and  tree-plantfng,  314-15;  under- 
draining 


cultur  .  , 

and  inquiry,  320-21 ;  concluding  re- 
marks, 321. 

CO-OPERATION,  reference  to,  in  re- 
gard to  wild  lands,  24 ;  CO-OPERA- 
TION IK  FARMING,  CHAP.  XLIi,  248; 
Co-operation  is  the  word  of  hope 
and  cheer  for  labor,  248 ;  ita  mean- 
ing, 248;  differs  radically  from  com- 
munism, 248 ;  the  difficulties  of  a 
young  farmer  who  migrates  to  Kan- 
sas, Minnesota  or  o.-:e  of  the  Terri- 
tories, 248-9 ;  the  ditlerent  circum- 
stances consequent  on  settlement  by 
co-oporation,  2^0 ;  advantages  of  co- 
operation not  limited  to  colonizing 
distant  tracts,  2,0 ;  would  beneiit 
colored  men,  2=10-1 ;  fencing  as  an 
illustration  of  the  loss  consequent 
on  want  of  co-operation,  2^1-2 ;  how 
co-operation  would  remedy  it,  2^2; 
further  application  of  the  system, 
252-3 ;  Mr.  E.  V.  do  Boissiere's  co- 
operative farming,  254-5. 

CORN,  20, 21, 22 ;  growing  o'f  bread-corn 
castv.-ard  of  the  Hudson, 37,43, 67, 63, 
81,  86,83, 92, 94, 99, 103, 107, 1 13, 1 14,11?, 
118,147.  GRAIN GKOWISQ— Eastana 
WEST— Cn.-.p.  XXVIII,  162 ;  hoeing 
is  of  no  ass  to  Corn,  162 ;  the  best 
and  cheapest  way  to  cultivate  corn, 
162:  the  fields  of  the  Mississippi 
Valley  are  tho  most  productivo  in 
the  world,  163 ;  the  tillage,  in  some 
places,  seemed  susceptible  of  im- 
provement, 163;  the  West  is  tho 
granary  of  the  East,  163;  a  change 
imminent,  163 ;  changes  since  twen- 
ty-three vears  ago  when  the  author 
Visited  Illinois,  i5j ;  the  course  the 
West  will  ultimately  a>!opt,  164  :  ex- 
haustion of  the  soil  in  New  England 
jxad  Eastern  New  York.  161;  in  the 
Gencseo  Valley,  165;  Eastern  Penn- 
sylvania profits  by  a  provident  sys- 
tem of  hur.bandrv,  i^s ;  the  States 
this  sldo  of  the  Delaware  will  yet 
have  to  grow  a  large  share  of  their 
breadstnffs,  165 ;  can  it  be  done  with 
profit  now,  considered,  also,  if  the 
East  hao  wisely,  BO  largely  cban- 


INDKX. 


325 


doned   grain-growing,  165-^;     the 

?  laces  not  taken  Into  account,' i6s ; 
he  "  Pine  Barrens  "  of  New  Jersey 
sclacted  to  illustrate  the  profits  of 
gram-growing  in  the  East,  168 ;  their 
nature,  168 ;  estimate  of  expenses 
thsreon,  167 ;  the  product  antici- 
pated, 167 ;  the  favorable  conditions 
tha  cultivator  would  enjoy,  168 ; 


the  money  value  of  his  crop.  168: 
great  economy  could  be  achieved 
jn  the  cost  of  cultivating,  169;  con- 


clusions, 169;  also  177,  191,  192,  193, 
210,  228,  2315,  242, 246-7,  264, 265, 271-2, 

COTTON,  107,  200. 

COTTON-GKOWERS,  Southern,  n3. 
COTTONWOOD,26i. 
CREDIT,  buying  a  farm  on,  25. 
CROPS,  Fall,  97. 
CURRANTS,  129. 

DAIRYING,  288, 

DANA'S  MUCK  MANUAL,  199. 

DELAWARE,  the  State  of,  166;  the 
river,  1*2,  16:. 

DENVER,  264, 277  ;  Pacific  Railroad,  the, 
262. 

DEPOPULATION,  (RURAL)— RURAL 
DEPOPULATION-,  chap.  XI/VTII,  s86; 
the  alleged  decrease  in  t'.ie  relative 
population  of  rural  districts,  2S6 ;  no 
Tacroaso  since  1859  In  the  number  of 
farmers  in  the  Biato  of  New  York, 
286 ;  probable  slight  decrease  in  that 
of  New  England,  286 ;  consolidating 
farms,  286 ;  small  farmers  are  sailing 
oat  and  migrating,  287;  reasons 
therefor,  287 ;  the  changed  character 
ct  the  tillage,  287-8 ;  the  general  use 
of  coal  has  reduced  the  demand  for 
labor,  2?8;  labor-saving  implements, 
288-9;  the  supposed  (TcKeueracy  ot 
the  New  Englaad  Puritan  stock,  289  ; 
the  migration  from  New  England, 
289-90;  the  assumption  that  Ameri- 
cans prefer  other  pursuits  to  fann- 
ing, 291 ;  the  rock  a:id  bog  of  New 
England  form  a  discouraging  imped- 
iment to  agricultural  progress,  290 ; 
compensation  therefor,  291. 

DIAliY,  the  keeping  of  one  recom- 
mended, 31. 

DICKINSON,  AndrewB.,  105, 106. 

DISTRIBUTION"  (of  farm  products). 
See  EXCHANGE. 

DOCK,  232. 

DOGWOOD.  314. 

DOGS:  their  depredations  oa  sheep, 

DRAl  NT  ING  —  DRAINING  —  MY  OWN, 
CHAP.  X,fo;  the  author's  farm, 62; 
situation  of  tho  land  thereon  requir- 
ing drainage, 6j-3 ;  difficulties  it  pre- 
sented, 63;  blunders,  65;  how  re- 
paired, 66 ;  condition  of  the  marsh 
before  draining  it,  61;  how  success 
was  retarded,  67;  evid;':ico3  of  suc- 
cess, 67  ;  thd  crops  of  iH-o  on  the  rc- 
c'iai;ne;lland,  63;  DRAINING  GENER- 
ALLY, chap,  xi,  69;  general  conclu- 
sions from  the  author's  experience, 
69 ;  extent  of  land  to  be  drained,  69 ; 
all  swamp  lauds  and  nearly  all  of 


some  other  kinds  must  be  drained  to 
ba  well  tilled,  b;;  the  many  uses  of 
nnder-drains,  60-70;  no  one  should 
run  into  debt  lor  draining,  -o  :  tilo 
and  stone  drains,  71 ;  draining  by  a 
Mole  Plow,  72;  general  directions, 
72-3;  covered  mains  recommended, 
73 ;  the  q nestio  n  o  f  lab  o  r ,  73 ;  a  case 
where  t'la  rudest  em-face  drains 
would  ha^e  changed  bog  into  •;• 
meadows,  i^j;  tho  stone  drains  on 
tha  author's  f?.r;:> ,  214  the  author's 
gamming  np  on,  3 \ s. 
DROLf'l'H— nab:tu:iHv  "shortens  Onr  Fall 
crops, 98;  A  LESSON  or  To-DA.Y(i&7o), 
chap,  xzxu,  189 ;  the  popular  view 
of  hot  and  cold  seasons.  189;  the 
Summer  of  1870,  effects  of  the  drouth, 
189-190;  general  character  of  each 
Summer,  190 ;  prooi'thatdrouth  need 
not  be  feared  by  th:>S',-  who  farm  pru- 


tained  there  by  right  cultivation, 
192 ;  the  iiicuiry :  how  are  the  people 
tusre  to  obtain  fertilizers?  192;  an- 
swered, 103 :  irrigation  might  be  ap- 
plied profitably,  194. 

EARTH  CLOSET,  123.        .  -     - 

KA:>  TERN  STATES,  pasturing  in,  19. 

EASTERN  STATES,  the,  23, 25-6,37, 179, 
189,  204,21=;,  279,311. 

EDINBURGH,  20> 

EGGS,  294-^. 

EO  YPT,  164, 167. 

ELECTRICITY,  285. 

ELK,  278. 

ELM,  w. 

KMERSON,R.-W.,44. 

ENGLAND,  70,  89,  164;  (Western)  170, 
178,  2txi. 

ERIE  Co.,  Pa.,  23. 

EUROPE,  35,  74, 156,  i63, 170, 171,  178, 180, 
219,238. 

EXCHANGE :  EXCHANGE  AND  DISTBI- 
BUTION,  c!iap.  L,  2 ;; :  the  machinery 
for  disposing  of  surplus  farm  pro- 
ducts imperfect,  297  ;  tho  abundant 
r.pple  crop  of  1670  us  an  Illustration 
taereof,  297-3-9 ;  tipples  should  have 
been  us  common  tts  bread  or  pota- 
toes, 208 ;  ttio  actual  f-icts,  298 ;  cause 
of  both  the  waste  and  dtarncss  of 
cpples,  239-!,oo;  consequent  loss  to 
producers  and  coasunicrtt,  299-700; 
tirnips  as  a  further  Illustration,  300 ; 
disappointments  of  inexperienced 
farmers,  300-1;  hucksters  and  mid- 
dlemen, 301 ;  suggestion  to  have  a 
railroad  purchase  and  sell  farm  p  o- 
ducts,  301-2 ;  r  .-suits  to  be  expi-cud, 
302:  an  objection  answered,  302. 

EXHIBITIONS  (AQBICULTDBAL)— 
AGKICULTUEAI.  KXHIBITIONS,  chap. 
xxxviir,2^5;  author  h  us  attended  at 
least  fifty,  2:^;  concludes ttoey  \\ei\-. 
not  what  thoy  might  and  should  be, 
22^ ;  the  i  eform  must  begin  with  tho 
people,  22;;  the  lot  of  the  public 
speaker,  225-6;  wlint  is  needed  to 
render  onr  annual  Fairs  useful  and 
Instructive  doiailed,  226 ;  each  fanner 


326 


IXDEX. 


Bhould  ho'.d  himself  bound  to  make 
some  contribution  to  his,  226;  an  in- 
teresting and  running  commentary 
should  b3  given,  227-8;  liberal  pre- 
miu-.ns  should  be  given  for  profi- 
ciency in  farming,  228-9  ;  need  for  im- 
provement in  the  character  of  the 
public  speaking,  229 ;  counties  should 
be  canvassed  to  enrol  exhibitors, 
230;  all  in  a  locality  should  feel  a 
common  interest  in  their  fair.  230. 
EYE-SMART,  125. 

FABRICS,  203. 

FAIRS.    See  EXHIBITIONS. 

FALL,  the,  126. 173, 174, 193, 318. 

FARMING  —  WILL  FABMING  PAT? 
chap.  1.  13;  will  it  pay  considered, 
13 ;  the  case  of  a  man  without  capi- 
tal, 13;  difficulties  common  to  all 
pursuits,  i3-"4 :  Astor  referred  to,  14 ; 
earning  the  first  thousand  dollars, 
14  ;  instance  of  remarkable  success 
in  farming,  near  Boston,  15;  case  of 
a  farmer  in  Northern  Vermont,  15-6 ; 
Professor  Mape's  success,  14  ;  profit- 
able return  from  a  fruit  farm  on  the 
Hudson,  iy-5 ;  that  shiftless  farming 
don't  pay  admitted,  17  ;  good  farm- 
ing profitable,  17;  farming  not  rec- 
ommended as  a  pursuit  to  every 
man,  17  ;  it  can  never  be  dispensed 
with,  17 ;  it  is  the  first  and  most  es- 
sential of  human  pursuits,  17 ;  all  are 
interested  in  haying  it  honored  and 
prosperous,  17 ;  if  unprofitable,  it  is 
from  mismanagement,  17;  the  au- 
thor's aim  in  these  essays,  17.  GOOD 
AND  BAD  HUSBA.NDBY,  chap.ii.  18; 
good  and  bad  farming  considered, 
18 ;  necessity  master  of  us  all,  18 ; 
dictates  the  line  to  follow  in  farm- 
lag,  18-9 ;  application  of  the  princi- 
ple to  pasturing,  19-20  ;  illustration 
of  good  farming,  20-1  ;  excuses  for 
waste  insufficient,  21 ;  truths  on 
which  good  farming  depend,  21 ; 
good  crops  invariably  practicable, 
21-2  ;  rarely  fM  to  pay,  22  ;  increas- 
ing productiveness  of  the  soil  the 
fairest  single  test,  22 ;  where  to  farm 
considered,  23;  experience  of  the 
author's  father  regarding  Iho  East 
and  West,  23;  circumstances  quali- 
fying it,  23 ;  the  difficulties  of  the 
pioneer's  life,  2  5-4;  purchase  of  an 
"  improvement ''  recommended  in 
certain  cases,  24 ;  civilized  places 
are  to  be  preferred  for  settlement, 
24 ;  co-operation  m.iy  change  mat- 
tsrs,  24;  good  firming  will  pay 
everywhere,  2$;  no  one  having  a 
good,  farm  advised  to  migrate,  2, ; 
money  Is  mad  3  by  firming  near 
New  York  as  fast  ns  in  the  West. 
25;  where  migration  is  advised, 
and  its  advantages,  2;;  troubles 
attendant  on  buyi.ig  o,i  credit,  25; 
the  uest  will  g:-ow  more  rapidiy 
than  the  East  durim;  fho  nexttwen- 
ty  years,  26 ;  the  South  invites  im- 
migration, 26;  great  inducements 
ottered.  26  ;  comuinad  effort  recom- 
mended, so;  good  farming  land 


cheapest  In  the  United  States,  27; 
an  incident  in  Illinois  farming,  27 ; 
counsel  to  intending  purchasers,  27  ; 
land  cheap  in  every  State,  28 ;  ad- 
vantages of  settling  in  colonies,  28  ; 
the  first  steps  toward  doing  so,  28 ; 
division  of  the  lands,  28;  laying  out 
the  town,  28 ;  the  progress  it  ought 
to  make,  28 ;  economy  of  capital  ac- 
complished, 28;  PREPARING  TO  FARM, 
chap.  iv.  29;  counsel  intended  for 
young  men  unaccustomed  to  farming 
2i> ;  pitlence  recommended,  29;  pen- 
alties ot  over  haste,  29 ;  value  of  ex- 
perience illustrated,  30;  an  inexpe- 
rienced young  man  advised  to  hire 
out,  30;  procure  books,  30;  general 
counsel,  31 ;  how  the  course  advised 
differs  from  running  into  debt,  31-2  ; 
experience  and  practico  essential. 
32 ;  circumstances  where  theoretical 
study  is  approved,  32  •  qualifying  re- 
marks, 32-3;  be  who  has  mastered 
farming  is  competent  to  buy  a  farm, 
33;  exceptions,  33;  a  young  man 
should  not  wait  until  he  ca:i  buy  a 
large  farm,  33;  twenty  acres  ample 
for  $2,000  capital,  33 ;  that  extent  is 
sufficient  to  test  "his  uptitude,  33 ; 
BUYING  A  FARM,  chap.  v.  34:  it  is 
better  to  buy  good  land  than  poor, 
34 ;  poor  land  can  be  turned  to  ac- 
count, 34;  the  smallest  farm  should 
have  its  strip  of  forest,  34  ;  advantage 
of  New  England  and  countries  of 
like  surface  over  very  fertile  re- 
gions, 34 ;  cannot  bo  divested  of  for- 
est, 34;  "Five  Acres"  or  "Ten 
Acres*'  not  sufficient,  35;  excep- 
tions, 35 ;  genuine  farms,  the  general 
want,  35;  the  remark  "hd  has  too 
much  land,"  35 ;  some  men  specially 
adapted  for  large  farms,  35 :  indi- 
vidual circumstances  control,  35 ; 
counsel  to  a  young  man  intent  on 
buying  a  farm,  jf> ;  means  of  buying 
to  be  the  main  guide^ ;  capital  the 
true  limit,  36;  New  England  farms 
comparatively  as  cheap  as  Western, 
35 ;  migration  urged  only  for  those 
who  cannot  buy  farms  in  the  Old 
States,  36 ;  success  of  the  butter- 
makers  of  Vermont,  36;  also  of 
New  York  cheese  dairymen,  36;  in- 
superable barriers  in  the  East  to  ef- 
fective cultivation,  37 ;  cultivation 
by  stsam  must  render  large  farms 
necessary,  37;  grain  growing  not 
likely  to  be  extended  in  tho  East. 
s? :  the  West  to  be  the  source  of 
supply  of  bread-corn  to  the  East, 
sy;  main  considerations  in  b  lying 
land  in  the  Eastern  States,  37 ;  in  the 
AVest  the  case  is  different,  37  ;  tocial 
considerations,  38;  make  a  p;ina- 
nent  investment,  38:  have  confid- 
ence that  industry  will  be  rewarded, 
38 ;  L\YING  OFF  A  FARM,  chap,  vi, 
39;  tha  surface  and  siil  of  a  farm 
should  be  carefully  studied,  39 ;  mis- 


INDEX. 


327 


cessary.  40;  a  pasture  to  be  first 
selected,  40  ;  what  it  should  be,  41 : 
the  one  great  error  in  relation  to 
this  matter,  41 ;  weeds  inseparable 
IVom  pasture,  42 ;  treatment  of  a 
pasture,  42-3 :  it  should  have  a  rude 
bhod,  43 ;  fodder  to  bo  brought  to 
c-ittle,  43 ;  "  too  much  "  land  and 
tree  planting,  50:  farming  in  West- 
Chester  County,  N.  r.,  51  ;  manage- 
ment of  grass  lands  a  test  of  farm- 
ing, i5->;  THE  FARMKR'S  CALLING: 
chap,  xxxi,  183  ;  merits  of  farmers 
as  a  class,  183;  the  author  would 
have  advised  one  of  his  eons  if 
spared  to  attain  manhood  to  become 
a  good  farmer,  183:  difficulties  at- 
tending the  farmer's  calling,  184 ; 
author's  reason  for  recommending 
farming  as  a  vocation  to  his  son, 
184 ;  no  other  business  in  which  suc- 

.  cess  is  so  nearly  certain  as  it,  184-5 ; 
farming  conduces  to  a  reverence  for 
honesty  and  truth,  185-6;  it  is  con- 
ducive to  thorough  manliness  of 
character,  186-7;  advantages  the 
farmer  enjoys  in  that  reepjct  over 
persons  in  other  pursuits,  187;  inci- 
dents of  the  author's  experience  as 
a  journalist  in  this  regard,  187-8;  in- 
dependent position  oftlip  true  farm- 
er, i8S  ;  diulculties  a  young  farmer 
encounters  as  a  pioneer,  24(5-9;  con- 
siderably obviated  by  co-operatiou, 
250;  co-oparatlon  admits  of  wider 
application,  250-1  ;  fencing  as  an 
Illustration  of  the  want  of  co-opera- 
tion, 251-2;  wide  adaptability  of  co- 
oparation,  252-3 ;  Mr.  £.  V.  de  Bois- 
si  jre's  co-operative  farm,  253-4;  farm- 
ing: in  Colorado,  265 ;  mistaken  calcu- 
lations of  inexperienced  farmers, 
299-300;  summing  up:  the  farmers's 
calling,  30*4  ;  American  farming ,  309 ; 
good  farming  is  and  must  ever  be  a 
piying  business,  310;  thorough  till- 
age, 310;  choosing  a  location,  311 ; 
m-udjnce  enjoined,  311-2;  the  greed 
for  land,  312-3 ;  shallow  culture, 319  ; 
need  for  study  and  inquiry,  320. 

FARMS:  LARGE  AND  SMALL  FARMS, 
chap.  XLIX,  292  ;  naked  magnitude 
has  fascination  for  most  minds,  292 ; 
sjmis  men  can  farm  a  township,  292 , 
large  farmers,  293 ;  the  opportunities 
and  expectations  of  the  small  farm- 


euauic  us  bu  uispyusu  wun  BUIUJ 
farms,  204;  evidence  thereof.  294. 
fruit  culture,  294 ;  the  production  of 
eegs  and  the  rearing  of  fawls,  294; 
the  inducemsnts  offjred  to  fowl- 
breeders,  295 :  this  industry  should 
commend  itself  to  poor  widows,  295 ; 
the  growing  of  market  vegetables, 
296;  ths  proilts  realized  therein;  296; 
gjneral  conclusions,  296-7. 
FARMERS'  CLUBS— FARMERS'  CLUBS, 
chap.  XLIII,  254;  farmers  divide 
into  two  classes,  254 :  characteristics 
of  those  who  do  too  little  work,  255 ; 
the  farmers  who  work  too  much, 
255;  illustration  thereof,  255;  value 


of  the  club  to  them,  256 ;  who  should 
f  jrm  the  club,  256:  its  rules,  256-7  ; 
the  chief  end  to  be  attained,  257  ; 
habits  of  observation  and  reflection , 
257;  evidence  of  the  need  thereof, 
2^7;  a  genuineiuterest  in  their  voca- 
tion is  needed  by  farmers,  257-3 : 
false  fancies  to  be  removed,  258  ;  the 
officers  of  the  club,  258;  grafts, 
plants  or  sseds  for  gratuitous  dis- 
tribution, 258 ;  an  annual  flower 
show,  259;  an  exhibition  of  Iruits, 
259;  the  organization  of  a  farmers' 
club  is  the  chief  difficulty,  259  :  how 
removed,  259. 

FARM  IMPLEMENTS-FARM  IMPLE- 
MENTS, chap.  XLI.  2^7 :  labor  arduous 
enough  without  adding  inefficient 
implements.  237,  improvements 
therein  during  fifty  years,  237  ;  proofs 
thereof,  237 ;  the  inferior  Implement* 
used  in  the  greater  part  ot  Europa, 
237-8:  the  claim  of  inventors  or  their 
agents  to  attention,  238-9  :  the  stock 
of  an  implement  warehouse.  239;  a 
co-opsrative  plan  will  be  found  ne- 
cessary to  secure  the  needful  imple- 
ments, 240;  reasons  therefor,  240: 
greater  Inventions  are  certain  to  be 
made,  241 ;  inventions  for  plowing, 
241. 

FENCES,  loo-i.  FENCES  AND  FENCiNa, 
CHAP.  xxxvil,2i9;  excessive  fencing 
general,  219;  fences  are  commonly 
dispensed  with  in  France  and  other 
parts  of  Europs,  219 ;  drivers  must 
there  keep  their  cattle  from  injuring 
the  wayside  crops,  219;  American 
railroads  have  largely  superseded 
cattle-driving,  220  :  fresh  meat  will 
ultimately  come  from  the  Prairies, 
in  refrigerating  cars,  220  ;  owners  of 
animals  should  be  responsible  for 
their  care,  220-221 ;  fencing  bears 
with  special  severity  on  the  pioneer, 
221 ;  fences,  where  necessary,  are  a 
deplorable  necessity,  221  ;  obstacles 
to  introducing  ditches  and  hedges, 
221-2 ;  wire  fences,  222  :  stone  walls, 
222  ;  rail  fences,  222-3  i  posts  and 
boards  are  the  cheapest  material  for 
fences,  223;  Ked  Cedar  posts,  223; 
Locust  posts,  223 ;  posts  set  top-end 
down  last  longest,  224  :  general  con- 
clusions, 224;  forms  one  of  the 
pioneer's  many  trials,  251 :  it  is  dif- 
ferent, but  not  better,  with  settlers 
on  broad  prairies,  251  ;  co-operation 
would  secure  an  immense  economy 
in,  252, 287 :  should  be  scrutinized  in 
winter.  306 ;. most  American  firms 
cast  of  the  lioanoke  and  Wabasn 
have  too  many  fences,  313. 
FERTILIZERS,  Commercial.  COMMER- 
CIAL FERTILIZERS— GYi-btiM,  CHAP. 
XVII,  102  :  Gypsum  might  bo  gen- 
erally applied  to  cultivated  land, 
with  proiit,  102 ;  tliu  case  where  it 
costs  $10,  or  over,  psr  ton,  consid- 
ered, 102 ;  it  should  be  used  in  all 
stables  and  yards,  102 :  on  meadows 
and  pastures,  102 ;  time  and  mode  of 
application,  10} ;  how  Gypsum  impels 
and  invigorates  vegetable  growth, 


32S 


INDEX. 


referred  to,  103;  Us  value  prac- 
tically demonstrated  in  and  around 
Paris,  303-4 :  the  nature  of  Gyp- 
turn,  104  ;  the  chemists'  theory  of  it, 
104 ;  Its  actual  elfect  assumed  as  the 
basis  01  these  remarks,  104  ;  Gypsum 
ought  to  be  extensively  applied  to 
pastures  andslopes,  104-5 ;  a  farmer's 
observations  on  its  effects.  105;  It 
may  be  easily  procured,  105 :  its  trial 
requested,  105-6,  soils  can  be  im- 
proved by  means  of  calcined  clay, 
100 ;  a  successful  trial  thereof,  106. 

ALKALIS SALT  —  ASHES  — LIMB, 

CHAP.  XVII,  107  ;  all  our  country's 
surface  might  be  improved  by  •lie 
use  of  suitable  fertilizers,  107  .  not 
many  acres  but  might  be  made  more 
fertile  by  their  use,  107  ;  compara- 
tive exhaustion  of  the  soil  soon  ren- 
ders them  necessary,  107-8 :  the  good 
farmer's  inquiry  on  the  subject,  108 ; 
the  state  or  each  soil  respectively, 
the  truo  guide  in  using  fertilizers, 
108.  alkaline  substances  might  bo 
universally  applied  with  pront,  108; 
the  hso  of  ashes  considered,  108-9 ; 
Marls  of  New  Jersey ,  109  :  Salt.  109 ; 
Potash,  109;  the  author's  trial  of, 
109-10  :  Lime  as  a  fertilizer.  1 10 ;  care- 
fat  tests  of  the  value  of  Alkalis  sug- 
gested, uo-ii.  SOIL  AND  FERTIL- 
1ZKB8, CHAP.  XIX,  112;  the  farmer  a 
manufacturer,  112  ;  the  opinion  that 
some  lands  are  naturally  rich 
enough,  112;  the  great  wheat  pro- 
duct at  the  Salt  Lake  City  Plain,  112; 
the  author's  experience  regarding 
the  imperfect  manuring  of  laud,  113 ; 
more  manure  and  less  seed  should 
be  applied  by  most  farmers,  113:  the 
richest  soils  deteriorate  after  suc- 
cessive crops,  111:  Nature's  law  of 
inflexible  exaction,  114:  rich  goil 
from  the  West  exhibited  at  the  N.Y. 
Farmers'  Club,  114;  chemical  an- 
alysis made  of  same,  114  ;  Professor 
Mapes'  remark  thereon,  114;  the 
mistake  of  fertilizing  poor  lands 
only,  115;  better  to  produce  the 
same  quantity  of  Com  from  a  small 
than  a  large  area  in  certain  cases, 
115;  barn-yard  manure,  and  its  use, 
115-*;  no  farmer  ever  impoverished 
by  making  and  using  manure  of  his 
own  manufacture,  117;  Lime  has 
been  used  without  advantage, 
in;  reasons  therefor,  in  ;  adulter- 
ation of  Lime,  in  :  farmers  advised 
to  be  discriminating,  in;  experi- 
ment recommended  where  there  is 
doubt,  in.  BONES— PHOSPHATES- 
GUANO,  CHAP.  XX,  lib;  wasteful 
outlay  for  fertilizers,  118  ;  fertilizers 
needed  and  used  la  Westchester  Co., 
N.  Y.,  u3;  whero  not  needed,  119: 
unprolltable  HBO  of  Guano,  120;  ex- 
ceptions to  the  general  rule,  120; 
the  other  fertilizers,  120;  author's 
trial  of  Guano,  121 ;  not  of  general  ap- 
plication, 121 ;  experiments  and 
careful  observation  recommended, 
122;  results  that  may  be  expected, 
123;  the  earth  closet,  123;  import- 


ance of  it  and  kindred  devices,  123; 
oyster-shell  lima  is  the  best,  128 ;  tlie 
fe'rtilizers  to  be  used  in  preparing 
for  an  orchard,  142-3,  treatment  <•( 
swamp  muck  for  potatoes,  173  ;  fer- 
tilizers for  potatoes  when  muck 
cannot  bo  had,  173-4;  supposed  ir- 
quiry  of  the  people  of  Warn  :\ 
<;o.,  N. Y.,  "How  shall  we  obtain 
fertilizers?"  192;  answered,  193 ;  a 
Maine  essayist  on  tourm 
and  its  remedy,  2-12-3  ;  necessity  for 
scientific  knowledge  on  the  effects 
of,232  ;  importance  of  some  standard 
to  go  by  in  using,  234-5 :  the  digging 
and  drawing  of  clay  as  winter  work, 
306 ;  value  ot  clay  for  grass  land.  306 ; 
procuring  commercial  Iertilizers,  as 
winter  work,  306. 

FRUIT :  a  profitable  fruit  farm  on  tbe 
Hudson,  14;  culture  ot,  35,  37,  107  ; 
ravages  of  insects  on  fruits,  129-^0. 
PSACHES  —  PBABS  —  CIIEKKIES  — • 
GRAPES,  CHAP.  XXVII, 156;  adapt- 
ability of  American  climates  as  re- 
gards fruit-growing,  1:7;  why  the 
climates  of  some  sections  are  un- 
favorable for  the  most  valued  tree 
fruits,  156-7;  author's  personal  ob- 
servations, 157;  difficulties  attend- 
ing the  growing  of  the  finer  Iruits, 
1=8;  counsel  tnercon  1o  farmers 
mainly  engaged  in  the  production 
of  grain  and  cattle,  157-8;  grt'pe- 
growing,  159;  the  mistake  of  neglect- 
ing vines,  159;  experiment  recom- 
mended, 159 ;  necessary  precautions, 
160;  the  course  recommended  to  a 
fanner  who  proposes  to  grow  pears, 
peaches,  and  qninc.-s,  160-1,  168,  228, 
232,  259 :  the  descriptions  of  fruit 
grown  Dy  small  farmers,  294  ;  fruit 
culture  would  decline  should  small 
farms  be  generally  absorbed  into 
larger,  294  ;  treatment  of  fruit-trees 
in  winter ,  307. 

GAMMA  GRASS,  261. 
UAIJDA,Lake,75. 

GENESEE,  Valley  of  the,  163, 165,  292. 
GEOLOGY.  30, 190, 231. 
GERMANY,  289. 

GRAIN,  22,  35,  40,  107,  no,  118,  125,  126, 
13J,  157, 167,  169,  186,  200,  206,  228,  235, 
239,  204, 2oo; 291, 293, 294, 20.  See  also, 

^   COHN. 

G^Al'lCS/ie,  59,  140,  226,  294.  See  also 
FRUITS. 

GSEA.T  BASIN,  the,  138.278,317. 

GR3AT  BRITAIN,  179,  238. 

GRASS,  22,  40,  43,  67,  68,  95,  107,  no,  121, 
112-3,  191,  232,  238,  239,  264.  See  also 
PASTUBINO  AND  HAY. 

QjjEELEr,  Horace  —  Arrival  In  New 
York,  n-4  :  own  experience  of  the 
difficulties  of  securing  a  good  start 
i:i  life,  ij;  remark  of  bis  father  to, 
OT  mifirration  toward  the  West,  23; 
own  evidence  of  the  value  of  ex- 
perience, 30 ;  is  descended  from 
saveral  generations  of  tree-cutters. 
44;  engaged  for  three  years  in  land 
clearing,  44 ;  reference  to  Amberst, 
N.  H.,  hia  birthplace,  52 ;  description 


INDEX. 


329 


of  his  farm,  62  ;  drainage  thereof, 
63-8  ;  observations  la  Italy,  74-6  ;  ex- 
periments in  irrigation,  76-7  ;  observ- 
ations in  Virginia,  80  ;  experience  of 
the  plowing  of  bis  plat  in  New  York 
city,87-8:  tries  deep  plowing,88:  plow- 
ing oi  the  hill-sides  on  his  farm,  04  ; 
benefits  thereof,  94  ;  judges  that  the 
gravelly  hill-sides  of  his  farm  would 
repay  applying  200  tons  per  acre  of 
pure  clay,  108;  experience  of  guano, 
121  ;  raising  locust  from  seed,  134  ; 
hay  product  of  his  farm,  151  ;  helps 
In  haymaking  from  swamps,  152  ; 
hoed  corn  in  his  boyhood,  162  ;  ob- 
servations on  the  cornfields  of  the 
Mississippi  valley,  163  ;  observations 
at  Chicago  twenty-three  years  ago, 
164;  finds  potatoes  less  prolific  on 
his  farm  than  in  New  Hampshire, 
173;  speaks  as  a  journalist  of  the 
difference  in  popular  estimation 
between  the  journalist's  and  farm- 
er's calling,  187  ;  observations  in 
barren  county,  N.  Y.,  191  ;  the  stone 
•wall  on  his  farin,  218;  experience  of 
agricultural  exhibitions,  22=;  ;  the 
plowing  on  his  farm,  281  ;  mentions 
the  sale  of  his  apples  as  an  illustra- 
tion of  the  imperfect  means  of  ex- 
changing farm  products,  298. 

GREELEY,  the  city  of,  262. 

GUANO,  1  16,  120,  121,  192,  318. 

GULF  STREAM,  178. 

GYPSUM,  120,  121,  122,  174,  233,317,318.  See 

alSO  1  EBTILIZEBS,  CoKUEECIAL. 

HARLEM  RAILROAD,  62. 

HAWK,  the,  132. 

HAY,  20,  68,  78,  ,  95,  119  122,  147. 
HAT  AND  HAYMAKING,  chap,  xxvi, 
150;  importance  of  the  grass  crop, 
i\o  ;  the  portion  made  into  hay,  i-w  ; 
Its  quantity,  150;  the  product  and 
quality  should  be  better,  151  ;  au- 
thor's experience,  151  :  the  manage- 
ment of  grass  lands  is  a  criterion 
of  fanning,  152  ;  haymaking  in  New 
England  fifty  years  ago,  i«;  too 
little  grass-seed  is  now  used,  152; 


England  fifty  years  ago, 

little  grass-seed  is  now 

too   little   discrimination   used    in 

sowing  grass  seeds,  153;   the  varie- 

ty of  good  grasses  wilrbfl  increased, 


3;  grass  is  cut  in  the  average  too 
late,  153;  consequences,  I^-M;  the 
plea  that  our  farmers  are  "short- 
handed  in  the  summer  harvest,  154; 
treatment  of  grass  when  cut,  154 ; 
the  author's  anticipation  of  how 
ha.vmal:ing  will  yet  be  carried  on, 
i-f;  the  r.eed  for  Improvement  In 
haymaking  insisted  on  155 ;  ex- 
planation thereof,  155.  Also  167, 189, 
191,  211,  235,  2t8,  291,  306.  See  also 
GRASS. 

HAYMAKING.    See  HAT. 

HEMLOCK,  19,  58,  60,  66,  223,  287,  314. 

HICKORY,  53.  54,  55,  59, 135, 136,  215,  291, 

HOES,  237.     '  249* 
HOGS,  in. 
HOLLAND,  238. 
HOMESTEAD  LAW  249. 


HOPS,  164. 

HOUSE.-!,  1^2;  carrots  as  food  for,  182. 

HUDSON,  the,  16 ;  a  f;-nit  farmer  on  the. 
16 ;  the  valley  of  the,  165 ;  banks  of 
the  upper,  191 ;  the  valley  of  the  up- 
per. IQ2,  194,  317. 

HUMBOLDT,  the  river,  81. 
HUMBOLDT,  the,  or  Canada  Creek,  75. 
HUNGARY,  164. 

ILLINOIS,  State  of,  37;  Northern,  163, 
164 ;  prairies  of,  164,  246, 264, 289. 

INDIANA,  37,  163. 

INSECTS — INSECTS— BIRDS,  chap,  xxii, 
129 ;  the  serious  loss  to  farmers  from 
insects.  129;  birds  our  best  allies, 
129;  what  good  they  can  do,  130; 
ravages  of  insects  not  entirely  due 
to  the  scarcity  of  birds,  130;  degen- 
eracy ot  our  plants  largely  causes 
their  ravages,  130 ;  Gov.  Packer  ot 
Pennsylvania's  observations  there- 
on, 130-31 ;  the  case  of  wheat  and 
other  plants,  131 :  a  war  against  in- 
sects must  continue  for  a  genera- 
tion, 131 ;  the  destruction  of  birds, 
132 ;  the  measures  to  be  adopted 
against  insects,  132 ;  birds  should  ba 
preserved,  132;  associations  should 
be  formed  to  do  so,  132 ;  artificial 
nests,  133 ;  legal  measures  proposed, 
133;  their  ravages  in  Newcastle 
township,  Westchester,  N.  Y.,  147-8 ; 
caterpillars,  1481  numerous  from 
neglect,  148 ;  duties  of  farmers  and 
fruit  growers,  149. 

INTELLECT  (in  Agriculture)— INTEL- 
LECT IN  AGBKTCLTUBJS,  chap,  xxxiii, 
195 ;  years  of  rugged  manual  labor 
essential  to  success  in  hewing  a 
farm  out  of  the  forest,  195 ;  value  of 
education  to  the  fanner,  196;  our 
average  common  schools  defective 
In  not  teaching  geology  and  chem- 
istry, 196;  the  leading  principles 
and  ricts  of  these  sciences  ought  to 
constitute  the  reader  of  the  highest 
class  in  the  common  schools,  196  ; 
counsel  to  ths  young  farmer  on 
agricultural  books,  197:  their  value 
demonstrated,  198 ;  a  two-hundred 
acre  farm  will  be  found  to  give 
ample  scope,  109;  instructions  re- 
garding particular  books,  109 ;  men 
of  the  strongest  ralnds  and  best 
abilities  will  be  attracted  to  fann- 
ing so  fast  and  so  far  as  it  becomes 
Intellectual,  itxj. 

INTEREST,  relatively  high  in  this 
country,  202. 

IOVTA,  27,  163,  164,  168. 

IlIKLANI),  170,  17  5,289. 

IliRIU  ATIOX  —  IRRIGATION  —  MEANS 
AND  ENDS,  chap,  xii,  74 ;  need  of 
water  for  crops  not  often  kept  in 
view,  74  ;  the  author's  observations 
In  Lombardy  (Italy),  74-5  ;  the  At- 
lantic Slope  and  irrigation,  76;  au- 
thor's experience  in  rrrijjation,  76-7; 
results,  78;  irrigation  of  New  Eng- 
land •  farms,  78 ;  advantages  that 
would  result  therefrom,  78!  Possi- 
rsiLiTiKs  OF  IRRIGATION,  chap,  xlii, 
-a  ;  natural  facilities  for  irrigation 


330 


INDEX. 


general,  79;  artesian  wells  on  Ihe 
prairies,  79  ;  -wells  in  California,  Sc  ; 
water  as  a  fertilizer,  80;  crops  in 
Virginia  suflering  from  want  of  ir- 
rigation, 80-1  ;  counsel  to  farmers  on 
irrigation,  81-2;  great  profits  to  be 
realized  by  irrigation,  62-3  ;  need  of 
irrigation  in  the  Eastern  and  Mid- 
dle States  considered,  83  ;  the  prai- 
rie States  after  1900,  83;  common 
objections  to  irrigation,  84  ;  it  must 
become  general,  247  ;  wells  will  be 
sunk  for  the  purpose,  247  ;  n  Fteam 
locomotive  for  the  purpose  referred 


,         , 

ticable  everywhere,  260  ;  the  por- 
tion of  our  country  which  cannot 
be  cultivated  without  irrigation, 
260  ;  its  extent,  260  j  its  climate,  260; 
it  is  spoken  or  as  desert,  261  ;  the 
readiest  means  of  irrigating  the 
plains,  261  ;  their  extent,  261  ;  the 
.North  and  South  Platte  rivers,  261  ; 
Union  Colony,  262;  its  location,  262; 
location  of  Greeley,  362;  the  first 
irrigating  canal  of  Union  Colony, 
262  ;  branches  and  ditches  there- 
from, 262-3;  how  the  water  is  de- 
flected to  it,  263  ;  the  larger  and 
longer  canal,  263;  doubts  at  fust 
entertained  respecting  the  capaci- 
ties of  the  Boil,  264  ;  proved  base- 
less, 264  ;  products  of  the  soil,  264; 
the  cost  of  irrigation  is  not  in  ex- 
cess of  cultivating  without  it,  264; 
demonstration  thereof,  265  ;  it 
would  pay  to  expend  $ioper  acre  for 
irrigating  New  England  grasslands, 
266.  MOKE  OF  IRRIGATION,  chap. 
Xlvi,  274  ;  irrigation  of  p'.aces  bor- 
dered nv  streams  referred  to,  274  ; 
the  facilities  the  Platte  oflcrs  for 
irrigation,  274-5;  results  that  may 
be  attained,  275;  the  Plains,  275; 
obstacles  to  their  cultivation,  275-6; 
the  change  that  will  be  yet  effected, 
276  ;  liow  the  plains  will  be  irrigated, 
276-7;  artesian  wells,  277-8;  the  co- 
operation of  railroad  companies 
anticipated,  278;  rain  Increases  as 
{settlements  are  multiplied,  278;  the 
parmanent  character  of  the  Plains. 
279  ;  tracts  needing  irrigation  in  the 
East,  270;  summing  up  of  the  au- 
thor's views  on,  315-6-7. 

IRON,  242. 

ITALY  (Northern),  171. 

KANSAS,  25,  26,  167,  249,  261,  264,  289. 
KANSAS  PACIFIC,  the  railroad,  262. 
KENNEBEC,  the  valley  of  the,  165; 

the  river,  279. 
KENTUCKY,  50. 
KIT  CARSON,  the,  277. 

LABORERS,  Farm—  Dearth  of  employ- 
ment for,  in  winter,  a  great  and 
growing  evil,  303. 

LAKES,  the  Northern,  165. 

LANCASTER  COUNTY,  Penn.,  no. 

LANCASHIRE  (England),  76. 

LAND.    See  FAKMING. 


LANDS,  public,  46. 

LARD,  164. 

LIEBIG'S  agricultural  chemistry,  159. 

LIME,  104;  as  a  fertilizer,  see  FEBTILI- 

ZER8,  COMMERCIAL  ;  OlSO,  104,  I IO,  1 1 1 , 

120;  oyster  shell,  121, 122, 128 ;  use  in 

preparing  foran  orchard,  142, 143, 147, 

167, 174, 192, 211,  232-3,  235, 306, 317,318. 

LOCUST,  the,  tree,  53,  541  55. 6°.  134. 2'S, 

LOMB^RDY,  74,  75,  76. 

LONDON,  269. 

LONDONDERRY  (Ireland),  171  ;  New 

Hampshire,  171. 
LONG   ISLAND,  N.  Y.,  166,  251,  315 ; 

Sound,  172. 
LONG'S  PEAK,  262. 
LORING.  Dr.  George  B.  (of  Mass.),  193. 
LUMBERING— How  rocks  in  creeks  are 

removed  by  a  lumberman,  217, 

MACHINES,  agricultural,  225. 

MAGGIORE,  Lake,  75. 

MAGNESIA,  2«. 

MAIDSTONE  (England),  89. 

MAINE,  125,  171,  232. 

MANGANESE,  in. 

MANGOLDS,  271. 

MANUFACTURES,  164,  243. 

MANURE,  95. 

MAPLE,  287. 

MAPES,  Professor,  16,  85,  114,  128. 

MARL,  109, 120,  122,  142,  167.  See  also 
FERTILIZERS,  COMMERCIAL. 

MARTINEAU,  Miss,  187. 

MARYLAND,  166,  251 ;  Eastern,  315. 

MASSACHUSETTS,  171,  193. 

McCORMICK,  C.,  86. 

MEATS,  150,  164,  167,  200,  201  ;  meat  will 
be  ultimately  conveyed  in  refriger- 
ating cars,  220,  266. 

MECHANICS,  243. 

MELON.  226. 

MEXICO,  1 72. 

MICHIGAN,  State  of,  163;  Lake,  156. 

MIDDLE  STATES,  139. 

MILK,  115,  167,  171. 

MILLS,  249,  250. 

MINNEHAIIA,  the,  285. 

MINNESOTA,  25,  26,  36,  37,  163, 164, 168, 
206,  249.  289. 

MISSOURI,  valley  of  the,  20 ;  State  of, 
168;  the  river,  260,  261,  279. 

MISSISSIPPI,  valley  of  the  upper,  20  ; 
38 ;  valley  of  the,  45,  69,  103 ;  the 
river,  163. 

MOLE  PLOAV,  the,  72. 

MONMOUTH.  N.  J.,  166. 

MORMONS,  tree  planting  by,  46. 

MORTGAGE,  bn\  ing  land  on,  31. 

MIDDLE  STATES,  pasturing  m,  19,  25, 
69. 142,  179,  204,  215. 

MUCK,  55,  109,  116,  120;  use  in  prepar- 
ing for  an  orchard,  142.  MCCK — 
How  TO  UTILIZE  IT,  chap,  xxi,  124; 
chemists  will  yet  be  iible  to  deter- 
mine the  value  of  nil  kinds,  124 ;  use 
of  muck  profitable,  124;  the  r.U- 
thor's  trial  of  it,  124 ;  how  ewair.p 
muck  forms,  124-5 !  Its  vast  extent, 
125  ;  little  benefit  derived  from  ap- 
plying it  directly,  125;  the  true 
course  to  adopt  to  secure  good  re- 
turns, 126-7  ;  practical  evidence  of 


INDEX. 


331 


its  valne,  127 ;  the  course  to  be 
adopted  by  farmers  having  few 
animals,  127-8;  mixing  salt  with 
lime,  128, 147,  167 ;  diversity  of  opin- 
ion about,  233  ;  as  an  illustration  of 
the  need  for  more  scientific  knowl- 
edge, 233-4 :  as  an  illustration  of 
winter  work,  304;  it  is  abundant 
and  accessible,  304;  proof  thereof, 
305-6;  value  of  muck,  305  ;  where  to 
_procnre,  318. 
MUTTON.  See  SHEEP  ;  also,  200, 220. 

NAPOLEON  I,  33,  292. 
NEVADA,  46,  76,  83,  260. 
NEWBURG,  N.  Y.,  a  fruit  farm  above, 

on  the  Hudson,  16. 
NEWCASTLE  (township),  Westchester 

Co.,  N.  Y.,  62,  147. 
NEW  ENGLAND,   25,  34.  36,  39,  45,  50, 

69,  78,  79,   139,   152,   163,   164,  165,  171, 

190,  206,  214,  266,  279,  286,  287,  289,  290, 

291,303. 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE,  87, 140, 172, 237. 

NEW  JERSEY,  49,  85,  109,  165;  South- 
ern, 166, 167, 168, 169,  190,  251,  305,315. 

NEW  RIVER,  Va.,  86. 

NEW  YORK  (citv),  13,  60,  87,  129,  269. 

NEW  YORK  STATE,  37,  49 ;  cheese 
dairymen  of,  36,47, 62,68.  79,  102, 131, 
140,  164;  Western,  163;  Eastern,  164, 
165,  100,  286,  290. 

NIAGARA,  the  falls  of,  285. 

NINEVEH,  266. 

NITRATES.    Kff.  FEIJTILIZEBS. 

NITRATE  OF  SODA,  122. 

NORTHERN  STATES,  48,  139,  140,  192, 
297. 

OATS,  67,  92,  94,  113, 118, 121, 143, 189, 191, 

210, 238, 245, 264.  265. 
OHIO,  Slate  "of,  37,  163,  220;   valley  of 

the  river,  38 ;  the  fiver,  53, 159. 
OLD  STATES"  the,  73,  249,  306." 
ONIONS,  191. 
ONTARIO,  Lake,  156. 

PACIFIC  STATES,  178. 

PACIFIC,  the  coast,  156;  valley,  a 
broad,  101. 

PACKER,  Gov.William  F.,  of  Penn.,  130. 

PARIS,  103. 

PASTURES  — Pasturing  will  soon  dis- 
appear in  the  Eastern  and  Middle 
States,  19;  its  pernicious  efi'ccts,  19 ; 
soiling  Is  preferable  to  pasturing, 20: 
a  pasture  should  be  the  first  field 
Belecteel  on  a  new  farm,  40;  where  it 
should  be  placed,  41 ;  misconceptions 
respectirg Indiscriminate  pasturing, 
41;  treatment  of  a  pasture,  42-3; 
should  have  ashed,  43;  appearance 
of  pastures  where  there  is  bad  farm- 
ing, 152 ;  summing  up  of  the  author's 
views  on  pasturing,  313-4.  See  also 
HAY. 

PEACH-TREES.  See  FKUITS,  also  129, 
ijo,  161. 

PEARS.  See  FBUITS,  also  129,  139, 156, 
204. 

PEAS.  To.  <X>,  271,  296. 
-  PENNSYLVANIA,  23 ;  Eastern,  165, 172, 

288. 
I  PES1IGEWASSET,  the  river,  75. 


PHILADELPHIA,  itf,  159. 

PHOSPH  ATES.    Se'e  COMSTEBCIAL  FEE- 

TILIZERS.  alBO  119,  121,  122,  1Q2. 
PHOSPHORUS,  118,  119,  235. 
P1PPINS.53. 
PITCH-PINE,  314. 

PILGRIMS,  the  descendants  of  the,  289. 
PINE,  58,  223. 
PIKE  BAKREire,  166. 
PLAGUE,  the,  268. 
PLAINS,  the,  46,  101,  261  ;  irrigation  of, 

275-9,  316. 
PLASTEU    (Gypsum).     Kee  CCMMEB- 

CIAL  FEBTILIZEBS,  also  80,  173,211, 

232,  233. 
PLATTE,  the  river,  82,  260,  261,  262  ;  val- 

ley of  the,  274. 
PLOWS,  steel,  87. 
PLOWING:  PLOWIKG,  BEEP  OB  BHAI.- 

low,  CHAP,  xiv,  87  ;  the  Dei  p  Plow- 

ing of  oU  lands.  not  advocated,  85; 

reasons      therefor,    8s;     instances 

where  Deep  Plowing  was  unadvis- 


Plowing  pay?  87;  author's  expe- 
rience of  the  plowing  of  a  plat  in 
New  York  city,  87-8  ;  plows  deeply 
with  profit,  88-9  !  £D  English  lar- 
mer's  trial  of  Deep  Plowirg,89-<;o; 
the  imperative  reasons  for  Deep 
Plowing,  50.  PX.OWINO  —  GOOD  AND 
BAD,  CHAP,  xv,  91;  misconceptions 
regarding  Deep  Plowing,  01  ;  the 
right  conditions  for  Deep  Plowing, 
91  ;  case  of  a  farmer  of  the  old 
school  cited,  91-2;  how  Deep  Plow- 
ing will  prove  profitable  to  him, 
92-3;  how  ho  should  proceed,  02-3; 
subsoillng  hill-sides,  94  ;  author's 
own  experience,  94  ;  the  revolution 
that  steam-plowing  will  cause,  9=;  ; 
plowing  of  Grass  land  considered, 
05  ;  treatment  of  Grafs  land  that  has 
been  plowed,  95;  plowing  of  a  poor 
' 


, 

f  quatter  on  the  prairie  in  regard  to 
plowing,  101  ;  the  p'.ows  ol  sixty 
years  ago,  237  ;  thetMOM  s  use  din  the 
greater  part  cf  Europe,  238;  im- 
provement in  plowing  inevitable, 
241  ;  the  improved  system  would  1  c 
ndopted  in  the  West,  241  ;  eteam 
plows  and  their  Inventors,  243;  at 
work  in  Great  Britain,  243-4;  the 
locomotive  that  is  needed  for  flenm- 
plowing,  244  ;  losses  from  want  of 
such,  244-";  ;  nccessitv  for  greater 
rapidity  In  plowing  demonstrated, 
246;  advice  of  a  German  observer 
on  plowing  for  (  orn,  246-7;  sulhor's 
experience  of  the  coPt  £r:d  delry  of 
plowing,  2^1-2;  not  half  eo  much  or 
B'>  thorough  plowing  done,  rs  there 
rhonld  be,  282  ;  the  imperfect  mear  s 
of  plowing,  282;  t-tcair-rlov.lng  in 
England,  2^3-4-5  ;  application  of  the 
facts  to  this  country,  2^4.  See  also 
STEAM. 

PLT  '  SI-TREES.    See  FKUITS,  r.lso  129, 
139,  294. 


332 


INDEX. 


PO.the  river,  74-5. 

PORK,  37, 99, 143,186,  igt,  220, 238, 291. 

POTASH.    See  FEBTILIZEBS,  COHM 

CIAL,  also  109. 
POTATOES,  88, 99.   ESCTJLEXT  P 

POTATOE8,   CHAP.    XX]  X.   170;     their 

productiveness,  170 ;  cultivated  uni- 
versally in  Europe,  170;  they  alone 
form  part  of  the  every-day  food  of 
prince  and  peasant,  170 ;  the  poor  of 
New  England  depended  on  them 
when  the  grain  crop  was  cut  short, 
171 ;  formed  part  of  the  regular  sup- 
per in  farmers'  homes,  171 :  the  his- 
tory of  the  Potato,  171  ;  it  is  essen- 
tially a  mountainous  plant,  172  ;  it 
may  have  grown  wild  on  the  sides 
of  the  great  chain  traversing  Span- 
ish America,  172;  everything  there 
congenial  to  it,  172 ;  results  attained 
by  the  author  in  growing  potatoes, 
172 ;  conditions  which  insure  a  good 
crop,  172-3 ;  swamp  muck  treated  as 
desciibed,  makes  an  excellent  fer- 
tilizer for,  173 ;  how  to  act  where 
such  is  not  to  "be  had.  173-4 ;  instruc- 
tions to  a  farmer  having  a  poor, 
worn-out  field  of  sandy  loam,  174 ; 
objections  thereto  considered,  174-5 ; 
the  potato  blight,  17^-6;  the  kind  of 
seed  to  plant,  176 ;  diillsare  prefer- 
able, in  the  author's  judgment, 
176-7;  preparation  of  the  soil,  177; 
varieties  considered,  177 ;  growing 
from  tubers  tends  to  degeneracy, 
1 77 :  the  originator  of  a  valuable  new 
potato  entitled  to  a  recompense,!  77: 
also,  189,  264, 296. 

POTOMAC  river,  the,  53,  73,  140,  159; 
valley  of  the,  317. 

PORTUGAL,  237. 

POWER-  UNDEVELOPED  SOTTRCES  OF 
POWER,  chap,  xlvii,  280;  the  farm- 
er's sources  and  command  of  power 
less  than  the  manufacturer's,  280; 
both  have  the  same  opportunities, 
280 ;  author's  experience  of  the  de- 
lay and  cost  of  plowing,  281-2  ;  fur- 
ther illustrations  of  the  imperfect 
means  of  plowing,  282;  steam  plow- 
ing in  England,  282-3-4;  steam  not 
commended  as  a  source  of  power  to 
the  farmer,  284 ;  reasons  therefor, 
284;  wind  as  a  source  of  power. 
284-5;  the  farther  anticipated 
sources,  285;  the  triumphs  of  the 
future,  285. 

PRAIRIE,  24 ;  prairies,  the,  of  the  "West, 
213;  the,  261. 

PRAIRIE  STATES,  46,  83. 

PRUNING,  u6. 

PUBLIC  LANDS,  24, 46. 

PURSLEY,  125. 

QUINCES.    See  FETUTS. 

RAG-WEED,  i2S. 

RAILROADS,  their  influence  on  the 
progress  of  the  "West,  26, 105 :  sug- 
gestions to  have  one  act  as  factor  of 
farm  products,  301-2. 

RALEIGH,  Sir  Walter,  171. 

"  RANCHING"  292. 

RASPBERRIES,  90. 


REAPERS,  American,  245. 

RED  CEDAR,  •$,  157,  223. 

RED  OAK,  19,  ^3, 60. 

REPUBLICAN",  valleys  of  the,  274. 

ROADS,  250. 

ROBINSON.  SOLON,  on  fencing,  219. 

ROCK.    See  STONE. 

ROCKY  MOUNTAINS,  206,  261,  262,  274. 

KOMFOED,  England,  269-70. 

ROOTS,  culture  of,  35, 43 ;  all  seek  heat 
and  moisture,  98, 126, 168, 206,  228. 242, 
265 ;—  ROOTS  —  TURNIPS  —  EEETS  — 
CARKOTS,  chap,  xxx,  178;  Br.ti^h 
and  American  climates  compare  £  as 
regards  turnip  culture,  178-9 ;  tur- 
nips mav  be  profitably  grown  in  tho 
United  States,  179 ;  cattle  breeders 
should  each  commence  with  one  or 
two  acres  per  annum,  179 ;  the  beet 
better  adapted  to  our  climate  than 
the  turnip,  180;  its  value  to  Europe 
as  a  sugar  producer,  180 ;  reasons  for 
doubting  that  beet  sugar  will  be- 
come an  important  American  sta- 
ple, 180-1 ;  beets  will  be  extensively 
grown  under  a  better  system  of  till- 
age, 181 ;  the  author's  experience  of 
growing  carrots,  181 ;  reasons  for 
not  achieving  eminent  success 
therein,  181 ;  the  carrot  ought  to  be 
extensively  grown  for  horse  feed- 
ing, 182;  its  value  as  such,  182  ;  the 
oat  degenerates  in  very  hot,  dry 
summers,  182  ;  roots  valuable  to  di- 
versify food,  182. 

RUTA  BAGAS,  143. 

RYE,  21 ;  winter,  43, 92, 143, 191, 192. 

SAGE-BUSH,  261. 

ST.  LOUIS,  156. 

SALEM,  N.  jr.,  166. 

SALT.  See,  FEKTILIZESS,  COMMER- 
CIAL; also  109,114,122,127,128,143, 
147, 174. 

SALT  LAKE,  46. 

SALT  LAKE  CITY,  112. 

SAVOYS,  271. 

SCHOOLS,  249,  2W. 

SCIENCE  IN  AGRICULTURE^;  Soi- 

BNCE       IN       AflP.ICTJLTtrRE,       Cliap. 

xxxix,  231 ;  author  disclaims  being 
a  scientific  farmer,  231 ;  men  have 
raised  good  crops,  who  knew  noth- 
ing of  science,  231;  science  is  the 
true  base  of  efficient  cultivation, 
231 ;  the  elements  of  every  p!ant, 
231 ;  necessity  for  scientific  knowl- 
edge, 2-« ;  author's  personal  experi- 
ence. 232;  the  assertion  ot  a  Maine 
essayist,  as  an  illustration  of  the 
need  of  scientific  information,  233 ; 
the  diversity  of  opinion  as  u>  the 
value  of  swamp  muck,  as  a  further 
illustrat ion,  233-4 ;  analysis  of  soils 
considered,  234 ;  the  necessity  for 
some  standard  to  50  by  in  manuring 
land,  234 ;  illustration  thereof,  2ri-=; ; 
science  explains  the  impoverish- 
ment of  soils,  235;  author's  testimo- 
ny on  the  value  of  science,  from 
personal  experience,  236;  a  compe- 
tence Is  reserved  for  young  men 
fully  conversant  with  agriculture, 
236. 


INDEX. 


333 


f-rOTCH-IRIsn.  the,  171. 

SCOTLAND,  178,  269. 

SCRUB  OAK,  314. 

SCYTHES,  239- 

'NS,  Dry.    See  DROUTH. 

SEWAGE  —  SEWAGE,  chap,  xlv,  266; 
causes  which  doomed  ancient  em- 
pires to  decay,  266;  illustrations 
thereof,  266-7  ;  the  soil  must  receive 
back  the  elements  taken  from  it, 
267;  obstacles  thereto,  267;  loca- 
tion of  ancient  and  modern  cities, 
267  ;  imperative  necessity  for  cleans- 
ing great  cities,  267-0;  meaning 
given  to  sewage  in  England,  268  ; 
C9nditions  necessary  for  Its  equable 
diffusion  over  the  soil,  268  ;  applica- 
tion of  sewage,  268;  difficulties  of 
utilizing  it,  268-9;  *ne  progress 
made,  269;  the  measures  taken  to 
utilize  sewage  at  Koml'ord,  England, 
269  ;  farm  whereon  it  was  nsed,  and 
the  results  attained,  269-70-1-2-3; 
conclusion  therefrom,  273-4. 

SHEEP—  SHEEP  AMD  WOOL  GROWTNO, 
xxxiv,  200  ;  production  of  wool  in 
the  United  States  insufficient,  200; 
thev  might  profitably  grow  as  much 
ssthey  consume,  201  ;  reasons  there- 
for, 201  ;  the  increased  price  of  mut- 
ton will  make  up  for  the  reduction 
on  wool,  201  j  rtieep-growlDg  in  Eng- 
land as  an  i!iust;-atlon,  201  ;  sheep 
soon  make;  a  return  for  the  outlay  on 
them,  202  ;  they  successfully  contend 
•with  bushes  "and  briars,  203  ;  more 
mutton  should  be  consumed,  202-3  ; 
all  farmers  are  not  counseled  to 
grow  sheep,  203;  depredations  of 
dogs,  203-4  ;  precautions  against 
them,  204  ;  the  change  in  the  rela-  1 
tive  values  of  mutton  and  wool,  204  ; 
the  relative  prices  and  product  the 
farmer  must  expect  in  the  future, 
205  ;  growing  sheep  for  mutton  near 
New  York,  205  ;  profit  thereof,  205  ; 
sheep-growing  fe  no  experiment, 
205;  encouragement  thereto,  205-6; 
sheep  growing  in  Colorado  and 
other  Territories,  and  its  future, 
206. 

SICILY.  267. 
SICKLE,  239. 
SILICA,  235. 
SMITH,  WnUAX  (Woolston,  Eng.), 

SOCIETY,  Agricultural,  an,  228.     See 

FARMERS'  CLUBS. 
SODA,  235. 

SOILS,  analysis  of,  234. 
SORGHUM,  BtalkBof,  43. 
SORREL,  125,232. 
SOUTH,  as,  ;    inviting  immijgratlon,  26; 

the  inducements  she  offers,  26-7-8, 

SOU  Til3  AMERICA,  200,  206. 

SPAIN,  86,  237. 

SPANISH  AMERICA,  172. 

SPRING,  67,  70,  73,  75,  76,  78,  81,  87,  88,  99, 
III,  126,  127,  134,  135,  136,  137,  I4°i  MPi 
150,  168,171,  173.174.  »93.  194,  202,  258, 


SPRUCE,  223. 
SQUASH,  226,  264. 


STARK  COUNTY,  Ohio,  ito. 

STEAM  IN  AGRICULTURE,  Cultiva- 
tion by,  37 ;  application  of  steam  to 
plowing,  95.  STEAM  IN  AGRICUL- 
TURE, chap,  xli,  241 ;  farmers  have 
been  slow  in  utilizing  the  natural 
forces  around  them,  241 ;  evidence 
thereof,  242  ;  steam  as  a  sonrce  of 
power  is  hardly  a  century  old,  242  ; 
the  revolution  it  bus  effected,  242; 
it  will  effect  still  greater.  243;  steam 
has  contributed  very  little  to  pre- 
paring the  soil,  243;  disappoint- 
ments of  inventors  of  steam  plows, 
243;  steam  plowing  in  Louisiana, 
243;  steam  plows  in  Great  Britain. 
243-4 ;  the  locomotive  that  is  needed 
for  steam  plowing,  244;  the  saving 
it  would  effect,  244-5;  American 
reapers  in  England,  their  value  ap- 
preciated, 245 ;  need  for  a  machine 
to  plow  rapidly  demonstrated,  246; 
recommendation  of  a  German  ob- 
server regarding  plowing,  246;  ir- 
rigation will  become  general,  247  ; 
the  locomotive  referred  to  above 
could  be  nsed  for  sinking  wells, 
247  ;  steam  plowing  in  England,  283- 

STE AM  PLOWS.    See  STEAM. 

STEEL,  242. 

STEUHEN  COUNTY,  N.  Y.,  105. 

STONE  —  STONE  ON  A  FABM,  chap, 
xxxvi,  213;  formation  of  the  earth, 
212 :  diffusion  of  stones  over  the 
surface,  213  ;  these  are  sometimes  a 
facility,  but  oftener  an  impediment 
to  efficient  agriculture,  213 ;  no  rock 
on  the  surface  of  the  great  prairies 
of  the  West,  and  a  portion  ot  the  val- 
leys and  plains  of  the  Atlantic  slope, 
213;  advantages  and  disadvantages 
thereof  to  the  pioneer,  214 ;  less  use 
for  stone  now  than  formerly,  214; 
the  stone  on  Eastern  farms  to  be 
yet  utilized.  214-5 ;  very  stony  land 
should  be  planted  with  trees,  215  ; 
rough,  unshapen stones  will  be  more 
and  more  used  for  building,  21 5-6; 
instructions  for  building  a  barn 
partly  with  stone  concrete,  216;  its 
advantages,  216 ;  blasting  out  stone 
considered,  216-7 :  the  mode  a  lum- 
berman employs  to  remove  rocks  in 
creeks,  217 ;  the  author's  experience 
regarding  the  fencing  of  bis  farm, 
218:  his  stone  walls, 218. 

STONES,  249. 

STRAWBERRIES,  16,  qo. 

SUGAR,  production  of, from  the  beet, 
180 ;  maple,  19,314. 

SULPHUR,  104.      ' 

SUMMER.47,  59, 64, 67, 78, 83, 84, 86, 88,  99. 
103, 124.  'A  13°,  IM,  173,  178,  189,  19°. 
191,  202,  260,  264, 279,  260. 

STTPBKPHOSPHATE;  174. 

SUSQUKHANXA,  the,  279, 292;  the  val- 
ley of  the.  317. 

SWAMP  LAND:  about  50,000.000  acres 
of,  in  the  old  States  (including 
Maine),  12^.  See  DRAINING. 

SAVIN  E,  14^. 

SWITZERLAND,  130;  Northern,  171. 

SYCAMORE,  59. 


334 


INDEX. 


TAMARACK,  221,. 

TEKRITORIES.'the,  206,  249. 

TEXAS.  43,  201;,  206 :  (Western),  260. 

TEXTILE'  FABRICS,  242. 

THEBES,  266. 

THISTLES,  42. 

THREAD,  200. 

TILLAGE  :  THOROUGH  TILLAGE,  chap, 
xvi,  96;  rocky  character  of  the  au- 
thor's own  fields,  96;  clearing  off 
stones  profitable,  96;  cultivating 
wet  lands  •without  draining-  un- 
profitable, 97;  the  course  a  poor 
man  with  a  rugged,  sterile  farm 
should  adopt.  97  ;  should  reclaim 
one  field  each  year.  97 ;  should  plow 
often,  deeply  and  thoroughly,  98-9  ; 
reasons  therefor,  99 ;  Fall  plowing, 
99 ;  enriches  the  soil,  99-100 ;  fences, 
zoo ;  the  favored  lot  of  the  squatter 
on  the  prairie,  101.  See  also,  PLOW- 
ING—DP AININO — FARMING  . 

THE  TIMES  (London),  282. 

TIMBER.    See.  TREES. 

TIMOTHY  GRASS.  38, 153. 

TOBACCO,  191. 

TOMATOES,  264,  296. 

TRIBUNE,  the.  New  York,  188. 

TURKEY,  86. 

TURNIPS.    See  ROOTS,  also  178,  264, 300. 

TREES :  clearing  off  timber,  30 ;  New 
England  must  always  be  well  wood- 
ed, 34,  37.  TREES — WOODLANDS  — 
FORESTS,  chap.  vil.  44:  the  author 
not  sentimental  regarding  the  de- 
struction of  44 ;  utility  the  reason 
and  end  of  vegetable  growth,  44 ; 
profit  the  main  consideration,  44 ; 
the  beauty  and  grace  of  trees,  44  ; 
New  England  a  favored  section  in 
regard  to  tree-growing,  45 ;  disad- 
vantage of  prairie  land  in  that  re- 
spect, 45 ;  trees  once  grew  on  "  the 
Plains,"  46 ;  tree-planting  in  Utah, 
and  its  climatic  Influence,  46 ;  failure 
of  Congress  to  pass  a  bill  encourag- 
ing tree  planting,  46 ;  mistake  of  the 
New  York  dairy  farmers  In  destroy- 
ing trees,  47 ;  Spain,  Italy,  and  por- 
tions of  France  suffering  from  the 
destruction  of  their  forests,  47 ; 
other  illustrations  of  improvidence, 
48.  GROWING  TIMBER  —  TREE- 
PLANTING,  chap,  viil,  50;  propor- 
tion of  a  farm  that  sh'ould  be  de- 
voted to  trees,  49 ;  the  question  of 
"too  much  land"  and  tree-grow- 
ing, 50-1 ;  the  case  of  WestchVster 
cited,  In  regard  to  tree-growing, 
51-2 ;  lt«  general  application,  52  ; 
timber  should  be  culled  out  rather 
than  cut  off,  52 ;  the  case  of  apple 
trees  applicable  to  all  trees,  52 ;  some 
woodlands,  the  cheapest  property 
in  the  United  States,  53 ;  another 
profitable  field  of  labor,  ^4 ;  plant 
thickly,  54  ;  a  common  objection  an- 
swered, 54 ;  the  Far  West  and  tree- 
planting,  55.  PLANTING  AND  GROW- 
ING TREES',  chap,  ix,  &  •  timber  gen- 
eral on  most  farms,  56  ;  suggestions 
for  locating  trees,  56;  trees  once 
pi  anted  cost  nothing" for  cultivation, 
56 ;  the  soil  is  richer  even  after  re 


peated  crops  of  wood,  57 :  poor  land 
Improved  by  growing  timber  on  It, 
57;  springs  and  streams  will  be  ren- 
dered more  equable  and  enduring 
by  tree-growing,  ^7 :  trees  sliould  be 
set  on  all  hill-sides  and  ravines,  5,7  ; 
trees  accumulate  manure,  58 ;  they 
can  be  placed  so  as  to  modify  agree- 
ably the  temperature  of  a  farm,  58 : 
author's  experience,  58 ;  trees  on  tho 
crest  of  a  hill  improve  the  crops  on 
the  slope,  59;  trees  may  be  placed 
with  advantage  on  banks  of  rivers, 
&c.,  59 ;  a  good  tree  grows  as  thrift- 
ily as  a  poor  one,  59 ;  evidence  there- 
of, 60 ;  diversity  profitable,  60 ;  wood- 
lot  should  be  thinned  out,  not 
cleared,  60;  tho  future  should  be 
considered  when  cutting,  60:  evi- 
dence thereof,  60 ;  a  plantation  fur- 
nishes employment  at  all  seasons, 
61 ;  tree-growing  will  make  springs 
appear,  and  cause  rain.  61  97.  ABOUT 
TREE-PLJCNTING,  chap,  xxiii,  134; 
author's  experience  in  raising  Lo- 
cust plants,  134  ;  general  counsel  on 
the  raising  of  locust,  and  most  other 
trees,  135;  sowing  seed  and  raising 
plants  therefrom,  135  ;  the  raising  of 
Chestnut,  Hickory.White  Oak,  135-6 ; 
how  a  farmer,  having  a  rugged, 
stony  hill,  should  act,  136;  profits 
which  can  be  realized,  137 :  the  util- 
ity of  forests,  137-8;  tree-planting  as 
a  field  for  adventurous  young  men, 
138;  how  they  should  proceed,  138; 
the  great  profits  to  be  realized,  138 ; 
drouths  may  bo  expected  as  tho 
country  is  more  and  more  denuded 
of  its  forests,  ICG  ;  how  stony  land 
may  be  advantageously  used  for 
tree-planting,  215;  treatment  of 
forests  in  winter,  307;  summing  up 
of  the  author's  views  on,  314. 

TREE-FRUITS.  See  APPLES  AND 
FRUITS. 

TREE-PLANTING.    See  TBESS. 

UNION  COLONY  —  Ita  location,  262  , 
the  city  of  Greeley  its  nucleus,  262 ; 
irrigating  canals  of  Union  Colony, 
262-4  ;  doubts  of  the  fertility  of  the 
soil  cf  its  location,  264;  proved 
groundless.  26 1. 

UNITED  STATES,  27,  53  ;  tho  annual 
hav  crop  of,  150,  151,  315. 

UTAH,  46,  76,  181. 

VEGETABLES,  culture  of,  35,  37,  90, 
107,  168,  218.  264,  265,  266 ;  the  grow- 
ing of  market,  as  a  source  of  profit, 
?','•. 

VENICE,  74. 

VERMONT— A  grazing  farm  in  North- 
ern Vermont,  15,  25,  36,  48,  no,  159, 

172. 

VINES.    See  FRUIT. 

VIRGINIA,  50, 80,  86,  140,  166,  191,  237. 

WALNUT,  u,  60.  135,  136. 
WARREN  COUNTY,  M.  Y.,  191,  192. 
WARING,  on  drainage,  72  ;  elements  of 

agriculture  by,  199;  on   drainage, 

3'5- 


INDEX. 


335 


WATER,  231-2.    See  also  IBBIGATIOJT. 

WATER  MELONS,  300. 

WEBER,  the  river,  81. 

"WEEDS,  In  pastures,  43. 

WEST,  the,  a  farmer  who  migrated  to, 
16  ;  illustration  of  good  farming 
drawn  from,  20,  23,  2;,  26,  27,  36,  37, 
41  ;  as  regards  tree  growing,  45, 
55,  142  ;  the  granary  of  the  East,  163, 
165,  168,169,179;  the  Far,  205;  th~e 


Great,  241.  291,  311. 
WESTCHESTER 


COUNTY,  N.  Y.,  49  ; 

52,  62.  67,   Il8,  119,   125. 

WESTERN    IRRIGATION.    See  IKBI- 

_  GATIOrf. 

WHEAT,  21,  22,  37,  92,  94,  U2,  113,  121, 
131,  162,  167,  169,  238,  242,  245,  264,  265. 
Sfe  also  CORN. 

WHITE  ASH,  291. 

WHITE  BIRCH,  314. 

WHITE  DAISY,  42. 

WHITE  MAPLE,  ^. 

WHITE  MOUNTAINS,  N.  H.,  173. 

WHITE  OAK,  51,  "-,,\y-,,  215,291,  314. 

WHITE  PINE,  30,  48,  53,  54,  55,  215,  287, 

WHITNEY,  Ell,  86. 
WILLOW,  59. 


WINDMILL.  276-7. 

WINDS— UtUizing  the  winds  lor  power, 

284. 

WINTER,  47,  59,  73,  8r,  89,  113,  126,  135, 
140,  141,  150,  154,  156,  117,  171,  178,  179, 

103,  206,  200,  222,   258,   262,   2b3,   288,    298. 

WINTER.    Set  WOBK,  WINTEB. 

WISCONSIN,  2=;,  159;  Eastern,  163. 

WOOD  ASHES,  120,  147, 173. 

WOOL,  164.    See  SHEEP. 

WOOL  GROWING.    See  SHEEP. 

WORK,  WINTER— WiNTEB  WoBK, 
chap.  11.  303 ;  dearth  of  winter 
work  a  great  and  growing  evil,  303 ; 
consequences  thereof,  303 ;  it  Is 
quite  a  modern  evil,  303-4;  the  hard- 
working farmer's  claim  to  leisure, 
304 ;  he  errs  in  supposing  that  there 
is  no  winter  work  to  be  done,  304  ; 
the  drawing  and  preparing  of  mhck 
as  an  illustration,  304-5-6  :  the  work 
to  be  substituted  where  muck  Is  not 
to  be  had,  306;  procuring  commercial 
fertilizers, 306;  fences, 306;  fruit  trees, 
306;  forests)  307;  general  counsel,  307. 

WYOMING,  206. 

ZONE,  temperate,  46 ;  torrid,  46. 


THE   END. 


HORACE  GREELEY'S  AUTOBIOGRAPHY. 


OF  A  BUSY  LIFE : 


REMINISCENCES  OF  AMERICAN  POLITICS  AND  POLITICIANS, 
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